Japanese outdoor brand LOGOS designed its Decagon system for campers who travel in a crowd. A ten-sided central shelter links to sleeping domes, a long dining tunnel that seats up to 16 people and a tarp that joins the tent to your car, turning a campsite into a small village of connected rooms. The design won a place at Japan's Good Design Award 2011.
The LOGOS Decagon modular tent system
The idea is simple: every module works on its own as a normal tent, and a special fastening system lets you join them in almost any layout. New Atlas, reviewing the "Decagon Link Station" in January 2012, noted that there was no theoretical limit to how big and complex an assembly could get. The system was shown at the Good Design Award 2011 exhibition at Tokyo Midtown, in a year when the jury was chaired by the designer Naoto Fukasawa.
The modules: hub, link, domes and car tarp
- Decagon hub (N600-J): the ten-sided centrepiece, 600 × 560 cm with a 295 cm centre height and five sides that accept other modules. It weighs 30 kg and LOGOS claimed it could be pitched in five minutes. On its own it sleeps three, or works as a dining room; an optional inner sleeping tent with a transparent roof panel fits inside.
- Link screen (N7130-J): the largest piece, a 710 × 300 cm tunnel 205 cm high, weighing 16 kg. It joins two hubs and makes a sheltered dining hall for up to 16 people.
- Sleeping dome (N240-J): a 240 × 240 cm tent with 170 cm of headroom, weighing 12 kg. Alone it sleeps four.
- Car joint tarp: attaches to one side of a hub and reaches over the back of a parked car, so the boot becomes part of your storage.
What it cost and what LOGOS sells now
In 2012 the hub cost 110,000 yen (around US$1,400), the link 64,999 yen, each sleeping dome 36,645 yen and the car tarp 11,778 yen, so the full sample layout came to roughly US$3,500. LOGOS still builds giant screen shelters in its Decagon and Octagon range; current models such as the Space Base Decagon sell for between about 187,000 and 319,000 yen in Japan, with inner tents and groundsheets sold separately. Check that newer and older parts are compatible before mixing them.
Planning a group camp with a modular tent
A layout like this suits big families and groups of friends who want one shared kitchen and dining space with private sleeping rooms around it. Before booking, measure the whole footprint, including guy lines and the car space, and compare it with the pitch size at your campsite: a hub and link together already stretch well over ten metres.
Split the weight too. The hub alone is 30 kg, so plan who carries what and practise pitching at home. Keep stoves and running engines outside the fabric: the car tarp is for loading and storage, and cooking needs open air. For other unusual ways to sleep outdoors, see Wohnwagon's small living spaces or transparent bubble tents.
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