We all sit and think how we can better whatever it is we do in life, be it kick a ball, build and sandcastle or design a kitchen, to making dreams come true for other people, but in my case its always been about designing spaces for people to stay in that intrigue and inspire internally and externally.
Which is why my camping pods are I believe the most adorable, of them all, as they were not designed for profit, they were designed to inspire, and to offer those that entered into one of my designs a new look at life, a feeling and a new no drama attitude to the world around them, and how a small space could be so, so different.
As a child I always sat in Churches or Cathedrals, when I was able to, and looked up at the roofs, i have a passion for church roofs, there is one church in particular , in the south of UK which is dedicated to fisherman, lifeboat crew, that lost their lives, etc, where the roof looks like a huge boat hull upside down, and if you dream a little you can almost see the church roof turned over and floating and crashing through the surf with many men pulling on the oars, wearing mackintoshes and risking their lives to save others, the roof was I think to me an inspiration of design that turned my mind to many different designs, but all with the sole purpose to give who ever it may be a pleasant unforgetable shock and the a wow reaction , be it a small camping pod, to an economy low income house, passive structure, or a 4m x 9.6m camping pod, all my structures must offer the feeling of a safe haven, peace strength, longevity and above all else quality.
So, when I see other companies copying something I designed, and actually making it worse, its not upsetting, or flattering, it disgusts me, as I know their only goal is money. Safety of design is priority number one, and that does not mean just escape entrances, in case of a fire, but also in structure, the structure must have strength, and a huge amount of it. As this means longevity.
THE FIRST EVER CAMPING POD DESIGN, AS YOU CAN SEE THIS WAS NOT DESIGNED BY IAN BONE……
Even after Newfoundland pods were designed by Ian Bone in 2004, they took a while to catch on. !!!
Ian, did not design the camping pod or the shape, zero………..
https://www.langstonemanor.co.uk/newfoundland-pods-the-story/
When I first started manufacturing camping pods, I decided to put the entrance on the side, not the front as Ian Bones first pods, which his design was an exact copy of the Indian Toda Hut, so to Ian, please, please stop telling people you designed the pod, you did not, …the Toda people did.
Sorry, i ramble, ok getting back to why i put the side entrance on the pod, and how Keith and others copied my designs, one even put a square house door on it, ( and seriously these are on par with arch leisure with zero strength and zero thought and zero anything, just made for making them money ) talk about zero balance, so getting back to my blog …….so we added the side door as it made sense, firstly fire, getting out of a pod and only having an entrance door at the front, and a small window at the back seemed to me madness, and the eco part was also missing as small door, small window, where does all that free natural beautiful light come in? Its doesn’t, so we decided to make our on pods, and we design righted them, the style and the way we believed they should be made. But also and you must not forget this, we made them super strong, and i mean super strong. Our pods are almost indestructable, winds, rain, hail, what ever mother nature throws at them, they will stand up to it.
None will show this kind of photo because none of the pods out there could take this kind of abuse! only ours which is why the Swiss/ Iceland, Norway, Italians businesses will never except the crap made in the UK because they are not designed to take harsh weathers and snow loads. And if you have a business and you want pods, come to the people that understand manufacturing, not some guy who sits at home, knows nothing about timber, manufacturing or even what a KN value is! Our Pods are designed to earn you a revenue year after year after year!!!
I then took on dealers, and then stuck to one dealer, Arch Leisure, Keith, who I thought was a stand up guy, at the beginning he was cool, then the Holidays each and every month, and then long, long holiday trips, and customers waiting etc, kind of upset me a little bit, but I am a loyal guy and I carried on with him, complaining but none the less carried on.
But in that time, he was scheming, and asked me to send him a pod without our tiles, or insulation and wiring etc, so he could copy how we manufactured the skeleton of the pod, and to his horror, I am laughing now because you can see he failed so miserably its almost funny, because to make our pods you need to have just one part of the mixture, and that is something him and his boys in a shed don’t have, experience, knowledge, or skilled carpenter craftsmans.
So when they saw our glulam beams, and how we made our structure solid, and how complicated it is, they gave up, before they begun. Stupid old bastard, destroyed a 8 year relationship because of greed. I hate greedy people, business is not about how much money you make, business is about how to make your customer happy, and for your customer to really love your product. and for the customer to return each and every year for more.
Our amazing Kitchen, it’s like sitting in the eaves of a church roof!!
What he has done now is cut down the build quality, incredible internal strength and design, just to earn more money. This is simply madness, dangerous and so I sacked him and asked him politely to take down all my pods, so no one would ever think for one moment that my designs, and my company were behind his Frankenstein creations. As his Pods may look OK, but in reality, they are in my mind CRAP!
This is not a camping pod, it’s already being called podbin with no though apart to make money its awful. And were is the strenght.
I have added his attempt at a kitchen and mine, and for you the public to decide which one is with strength and style and what looks like a cheap nasty caravan.And what looks like it was designed to offer you a unique exsperience.
