motoelastico designs foldable tents for night market in seoul

called ‘bamdokkaebi night markets’, the tents designed by motoelasico for the initiative of seoul’s government — design markets held overnight during the weekends — are collapsible and stackable structures. the project provides two practical solutions for two different locations on the side of the han river.

yeouido booths

the aim of the markets is to provide a platform for young craftsmen and designers to sell their product in a festive environment. the markets take place only at night during the weekend and each vendor has a standard booth to operate his business. during the week all the booths have to be stored on site and occupy the minimum amount of space. motoelasico has developed two different projects to respond to different site features.

the site in yeouido island is narrow and long, squeezed between a lawn used for events and the waterfront. the booths are modular, designed using a foldable v metal structure as the main chassis and orange PVC tarp as the body cover. three booths were combined together to form a unit and stored. few hours before the events, each unit quickly opens and is pushed on its own wheels: the covers are rolled up to facilitate the view of the driver and ventilate the interior once parked in position. in the final linear formation, the booths provide privacy to each vendor without blocking the view of the han river.

the market in banpo district is located next to the lower section of a double-decker bridge, in an area full of built-in public benches and vegetation areas. the project was inspired by the stackable carts used in supermarkets all around the world. booths are designed as single independent units on wheels with a simple pyramidal form — each side is skewed to facilitate stacking operations and reduce the amount of storage required. the frame is in metal and the cover is in yellow PVC tarp. the geometry of the single element allows different space configurations. the tapering side of the booths allows transparency between each row and at the same time they frame the vendors in well-identified spaces.

video by motoelastico

yeouido sketch

banpo sketch

project info:

architect: motoelastico+ euncouncil design

team: simone carena, marco bruno, juneho kim

photography: motoelastico

location: seoul

size: yeouido – 2.40 x 1.50 x 2.20h x 70 modules / bampo – 2.40 x 2.00 x 2.20h x 70 modules

materials: metal frame, orange and yellow PVC covers 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: maria erman | designboom