Highly Portable Jupe Dwelling Unit Is How You Do Glamping Right

Tiny houses and pop-up dwelling units have also seen a considerable boom in demand, which is yet another sign of our times. Jupe combines the best of both worlds (of tiny houses and tiny living pods) in the hope of being a solid alternative for off-grid vacations.

Jupe was designed by boutique hotelier Liz Lambert and sustainable architecture expert Cameron Sinclair and was developed by Jeff Wilson, who created the award-winning Kasita micro-home. It is a dwelling unit that’s highly portable, comes with all the creature comforts of home, has minimum impact on the area it’s erected, and will most definitely make for the most Instagrammable location ever. Think of it as of a glorified tent, and you wouldn’t be exactly wrong.

Introduced on December 21, when Jupe’s namesake Jupiter was seen on the sky closest to Saturn than it has in centuries (an event known as the “great conjunction”), this dwelling unit is inspired by the stars – and the monolith seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s elegant, spacious and comfortable and, according to the makers, it’s “designed for new frontiers beyond the city and off the grid. It isn’t just a quick place to stay. It’s a gateway to the outside world.”

Each unit disposes of 111 square feet (10.3 square meters) of space inside, more than enough to house a queen-size bed or two extra-large twins with Nectar mattresses, a pair of end tables, a desk and chair, and an ottoman. If you feel like splurging, you can ask for optionals like a small porch, Sonos Move speaker with Alexa capabilities, more solar panels, a locking safe, and a cooler.

It might not look like it at first sight, but Jupe has plenty of storage space as well. The finished Baltic birch wood floors are actually cubicles totaling 38 cubic feet (1.1 cubic meters) of storage, or what you’d need to pack about 10 large suitcases.

Jupe is made of interconnected, durable aluminum masts, tested for all types of weather and climate conditions, with luminous and long-lasting Firesist fabric. It sits on a modular chassis of which designers say it’s the first of the kind, housing all wiring, electric, and mechanical elements of a home. The chassis can sit on all types of ground, regardless of whether it’s level or not, and leave little trace once it’s removed.

Each unit can be flat-packed for easy transportation, with installation and disassembly taking a matter of hours. It comes with its own 200 Ah battery system and WiFi router, a panel system to power four electrical outlets and USB charging stations, and dimmable LED lighting.

Jupe is meant to be the perfect location for a weekend getaway, a unit that can help landowners capitalize by renting out without building, or as an unlikely backup for hoteliers when they’re experiencing too much demand. The makers boast that it’s also just right for the regular Joe and Jane looking to escape the city and go off-grid. That last part, of course, is entirely dependent on whether “off-grid” comes with a water source and a place to go number one and two. Otherwise, this isn’t exactly glamping.

That aside, Jupe’s strongest selling point, in addition to movability, is the fact that it’s very Instagrammable. The entryway is perfect for those “wish you were here”-type of posts, and there are two additional windows allowing you to take in the views and fresh air.

If you don’t mind peeing in the woods (pardon our French) while you’re roughing it up like a boss in your spaceship-like cabin, Jupe is taking pre-orders now. The base price is $17,500, with delivery set for spring 2021.