Dré Wapenaar’s Unusual Tents: Artful Environments Cloaked In Canvas

Dré Wapenaar's Unusual Tents

Dré Wapenaar is a Rotterdam-based artist whose primary medium is tents – environments designed to shape encounters, whether between individuals or for large groups. Dre’s portfolio includes a tent for reading newspapers, a birthing tent, “Deathbivouac,” the “Pavilion of Loneliness,” “Tree Tents” and “4GPP” – a pavilion for the performance of Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt’s “Concerto for Four Grand Pianos.”

Dré Wapenaar’s Unusual Tents

Dré Wapenaar's Unusual Tents

Most of his tents are art pieces or sculptures and are not sold for commercial use. In the blogosphere, he’s best known for his unusual looking tree tents, first created in 1998:

unusual tents

Here’s a little background. The first 3 Treetents were produced for Campsite De Hertshoorn in Garderen in 1998. They were built by brothers Gertjan and Dré Wapenaar, as well as the steel frame as the manufacturing of the canvas.

boom tents

In 2005 they built a new edition of the Treetent or Boomtent (this one can be loaned out and used for shows directly from Studio Dré Wapenaar).

TREETENT 2005 EDITION/ BOOMTENT EDITIE 2005
tree tentDré Wapenaar tree tent

Only ten were produced of the 2005 edition in the following colors:
– forest-green
– dark-grey
– dark-beige
– bright-whiteEngineer: Technisch Buro Cor de Heer

Steel Frame: Constructor Dick van Campenhout, Waalhaven Rotterdam.
Canvas: Ten Cate Technical Fabrics

And I bet you didn’t know that he actually has little ones for birds as well! Birdtent orders can be made directly via the studio.

perspective view

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, he’s created a lot more than just the Treetents or BoomTents (as they are called in the Netherlands). Below are a few from his portfolio.

Tent Village, begun in 2001 and revisted in 2007:
tent village

Dré Wapenaar tent village

Dré Wapenaar tents

Dré Wapenaar

tent village Dré Wapenaar

A Shower Tent, 1997:
shower tent

shower tent design

A BBQ Tent, 1997:
BBQ tent

A Birthing Tent, 2003:
BBQ tent by Dré Wapenaar

The Four Grand Piano Pavilion, 2004:
grand piano pavilion

tent design

Camp Tent, 2008:
camp tent

tent design

artful tents

The Recital Pavilion, 2008:
recital pavilion Dré Wapenaar

Dré Wapenaar

artsy tents

artist Dré Wapenaar
Artist Dre Wapenaar

More tents to see at his site.

Studio Dré Wapenaar
The Netherlands