Every year, Amsterdam’s Centrumeiland of Ijburg hosts ‘Urban Campsite,’ a public exhibition of sculptural habitats allowing local residents and tourists can spend the night in mobile sculptures. Designers, artists and architects are invited to create cool structures that are way more interesting than the average tent and install them at Science Park, a new area in Amsterdam-East. This year’s theme is ‘The Art of Tech-Living,’ envisioning how art can give science and technology a little boost of imagination.

“Did you ever feel the urge to sleep in a piece of art? Well, then this is your chance! UrbanCampsite is the place where a camping and unique artistic objects meet. You can stay in beautiful, special, sometimes crazy works of art furnished as a hotel room. The UrbanCampsite offers its guests all the amenities of a normal campsite … and quite a lot more than that!”

Prospective guests book the individual habitats on AirBnB, and each sculpture is fully furnished inside. These ‘sleeping objects’ typically have room for two, though a couple will fit children as well, and they range from 85-120 Euros per night. They’re often made of reclaimed materials like trampolines, shrink wrap, pallets and metallic insulation.

For 2017, the selection of sleeping objects includes a mini monastery with an oak sapling at its center, a giant camera obscura, a Dutch electric car from the 70s once used as a mobile post office, a stargazing lab, a 360-degree rotating research ship and a “luxury bungalow made of a sewer tube,” among others.

“Waiting for Water” by Stefanie Rittler and Sascha Henken, for example, bills itself as a humorous view on climate change, saying “The sea water level is constantly rising. Should we wait or change something?” In any case, you can enjoy the views from the upper-level bedroom while the exhibition is still safe on dry land.

Off-grid housing is almost always relegated to remote areas due to strict urban building codes and access to affordable land, but sometimes self-contained structures pop up in parks, on rooftops and in canals anyway – or the owners of more conventional city dwellings simply cut the cord. There are already a lot of different ways to go off-grid in the city, most explored by necessity due to poverty, others seeking a more sustainable way of life without giving up community and convenience. From rooftop structures and mobile housing to entirely new self-powered city blocks, these solutions work within cities that already exist rather than envisioning expensive futuristic eco-cities from the ground up.

The Mobiators

Somewhere between a DIY cabin, a tent and a mobile home, this strange structure by The Mobiation Project travels through Amsterdam, setting up in locations all over the city as a statement about the increasingly broken global economy and damage to the environment. Built by an artist/architect and a carpenter/designer, The Mobi-01 acts as an interactive, inhabitable, ‘open-house’ example of an off-grid structure that can set up virtually anywhere.

Off-Grid Rooftop Penthouse in Canada

Reclaiming the rooftop space atop urban structures isn’t a new idea, but it’s rare to see them disconnected from the power grid, like this former mechanical room on a 19-floor office building in Edmonton, Canada. Architect Vivian Manasc saw potential in the structure when doing a technical evaluation of the building, and ultimately transformed it into a home for herself. The home horseshoes around an existing elevator core, which warms the space passively, and gets its power from solar panels.

Free Off Grid Camping on a NYC Rooftop

Bivouac is a pop-up campsite rotating to different rooftop spots around New York City, consisting of little more than six waterproof canvas tents with wooden frames and wool floor mats, a kitchen area with a table, and a small library. There’s no internet, electricity or showers, and you can’t have a campfire, but at least there’s access to a toilet within the building. It’s entirely free, and an interesting concept, though one wonders what this project says about accessing urban spaces when you’re well-off just for fun versus the tent cities created by homeless people who have nowhere else to go.

Off-Grid Urban Block for Dallas, Texas

What if entire city blocks could be designed to power themselves, built in areas that were previously disused, like former industrial properties or rail yards? Winner of the Re:Vision Dallas competition, ‘Forwarding Dallas’ envisions a complex of living spaces inspired by rolling hills, with vegetation-covered roofs, solar panels, wind turbines, and passive solar louvers covering the building’s glass facades to regulate heat. The block also has its own rooftop water catchment system, a greenhouse, a swimming pool and other communal spaces. The 40,000-square-meter complex could sustainably house 854 people within the space of a typical city block.

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Urban Off Grid 12 Creative Solutions For Self Sustainability In The City

Lurking in a windowless white van gets significantly less creepy when you’ve custom-outfitted the interior with wood flooring, storage space, a kitchenette and a queen-sized bed – right? At least, it does for most of these creative conversions. Typically using standard cargo vans or the taller, newer Sprinter vans as a base, these DIY camper projects often emphasize stealth, so you can park them in urban areas next to a bunch of work vans and stay overnight without anyone batting an eye or calling the cops. While some definitely blend right in, others are a bit more conspicuous once you lift the suspension, add all-terrain tires and otherwise turn them into off-roading beasts.

Adam’s Former NYPD Van

Taking a scroll through Adam Nawrot’s Instagram feed might just make you question what you’re doing with your life. The photographer purchased a used NYPD crime scene investigation van for $2,200, custom-built out the interior by hand, and now uses it as a home base for extensive travels across the United States. He’s got kayaks strapped to the top, bikes mounted on the front, solar panels on the roof, drawers full of climbing gear, and room for up to five friends to travel with him. His adventures loo pretty epic, and he clearly has quite an eye for capturing them.

Chevy Van to Mobile Studio

Filmmaker Zach Both converted a work van, too, this one a decade-old Chevy with pop-out panels that happen to make perfect camper windows. He designed and built the kitchen area and bed platform, and salvaged wood from a 19th century church in Cleveland for the finishing treatments. The space is now used as both a mobile home and a work studio. Both offers a free guide called ‘The Vanual’ for anyone who wants to DIY their own camper van.

Sportsmobile Heavy-Duty Van Conversions

If the typical camper van just isn’t quite rugged and badass enough for you, Sportsmobile can probably help you out with that, assuming you have $100K to spend. The company customizes Mercedes Sprinters, Ford Transits, Dodge Promasters and Chevy vans into serious adventure vehicles with pop-up tops, heavy-duty cargo racks and contemporary interiors designed to their customers’ specifications, and you can even get 4×4 versions.

Solar Powered Home on Wheels

A young couple transformed a 16-year-old VW van into a sweet and simple solar-powered home they use to travel through Southern Europe and Morocco. Considering that the interior of this type of van is much smaller than that of a cargo or conversion van, they did an incredible job making use of the space, adding a kitchen, lots of storage and a pull-out bed.

Minivan Camper for an Italian Woman and Her Dog

This conversion uses an even smaller vehicle as a base, ending up with just enough space for an Italian woman and her dog to travel Europe. Marina Piro dreamed of seeing the world, but didn’t want to leave her dog, Odie, behind. She turned a 2001 Renault Kangaroo Van into ‘Pam the Van,’ insulating the floor, adding a fold-out bed and a tiny kitchen. As you can probably imagine, traveling in a van with a giant hairy dog has its complications, but it sounds like Pam is having a lot of fun.

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Stealth Campers And Diy Rvs 15 Creatively Converted Vans

Dangle thousands of feet above the bottom of a canyon, take in the Pacific Ocean from a human nest, view the Northern Lights from a transparent igloo or spend the night in a giant purple sperm. These incredibly creative (and sometimes terrifying) campers, tents and other open-air accommodations are far from your typical hotel experience.

Urban Campsite: 6 Whimsical Capsules

The ‘Urban Campsite’ in Amsterdam is an ‘art-sleep experience’ inviting guests to stay in 14 sculptural mobile camping pods on the beach, ranging from a sailboat-like modern white loft with spherical portholes to a lounge and sleep space built under a trampoline. The pods are all clustered together on the sand plains of Ijburg beside a communal kitchen and ‘tribal toilet tower.’ Some of the creations are more solid and permanent than others, like the wooden icosahedron structure by Boomhuttenfest or the bizarre bottle-shaped ‘Val Ross’ by MUD projects. A shrink-wrap house with a pallet stoop explores the value of waste materials, while the ‘Bedbug’ sits on adjustable legs to adapt to various urban camping environments. The pods can be booked on Air BNB.

Hanging Tree Beds in Bavaria

The Waldseilgarten resort in the mountains of Pfronten, Germany requires you to be just a wee bit adventurous with a series of tent platforms perched on cliffs or dangling from trees. All guests receive rope climbing training before spending the night, especially since you’ll have to do some climbing in the dark if you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The tree platforms offer relatively easy access to the ground, but the cliff platforms can be up to 6,562 feet above the valley floor.

Transparent Igloo for Viewing the Northern Lights

Maintain an uninterrupted view of the Northern Lights from the transparent ceiling of your igloo in Finland. The Kakslauttanen Hotel & Igloo Village boasts 40 igloos for two, each temperature-controlled and equipped with its own sauna. The complex is located near the Urho Kekkonen National Park, which has some of the Arctic Circle’s most impressive views of the Aurora Borealis.

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Creative Camping 16 Out There Open Air Accommodations

At Bonn’s Basecamp Young Hostel, travelers enjoy the quirky accommodations of cheerfully decorated vintage RVs, with views of the sea and an unchanging blue sky just beyond their windows. That sky will never go cloudy, nor will it rain, because this particular campground is actually located in a 600-square-meter industrial warehouse.

Each of the 15 RVs has been lovingly restored and transformed into its own individual getaway with a specific theme. For example, there’s a hunting cabin laden with antlers and furs, a seaside camper with a captain’s wheel and oars, and a British parlor ready for afternoon tea.

The campers have names like ‘Drag Queen,’ ‘Rockabilly,’ ‘Space Shuttle’ and ‘Zen.’ Guests at the hostel can choose which eccentric theme best fits their tastes. The interiors may not be luxurious, but they’re certainly fun.

The reclaimed RVs range from teardrop trailers with faux wood panels and authentic Airstreams to VW buses. Also on site are two railway cars from Deutsche Bahn trains, which offer space for small student groups. Rates start at just 54 euros per night.