Fold Bunk: Modular Architecture for a Transportable Pilgrims Village

Temporary settlements created along pilgrimage routes demand a particular kind of architecture. Shelter must be compact yet comfortable, easy to transport yet structurally credible, and temporary without becoming disposable. Fold Bunk, a project by Kaya Liffler and Lorenz Hahnheiser, explores this challenge through modular architecture, proposing a foldable sleeping house that can be transported as a compact package and unfolded to create a small-scale pilgrims village.

Selected as an Editor’s Choice entry of Encamp, Fold Bunk approaches temporary accommodation not as a collection of tents or conventional cabins, but as a carefully engineered architectural kit. Its drawings reveal an A-frame shelter composed of prefabricated floor, wall, roof, structural, and interior elements that work together as one transportable system.

The project asks a direct question: can a temporary dwelling deliver the spatial character and structural clarity of architecture while retaining the logistical efficiency of a foldable object?

Fold Bunk proposes that it can.

Site plan showing Fold Bunk’s compact transportable package and its placement within the pilgrimage landscapeModular Architecture Built Around Movement

The central idea behind Fold Bunk is mobility.

Instead of transporting a finished volumetric cabin, the dwelling is compressed into a relatively flat transportable package. Once delivered to the site, its components unfold and are secured to form the final shelter.

This distinction is important. The project is not simply a small cabin that happens to be movable. Transportation, assembly, disassembly, and reuse are embedded into its architectural logic from the beginning.

The component catalogue and setup drawings show how the design has been divided into manageable architectural parts. Floor panels establish the base, structural elements rise from the platform, wall panels define the enclosure, and roof sections complete the characteristic triangular profile.

Through this process, modular architecture becomes both a construction strategy and a spatial strategy.

Every major element participates in the transformation from compact package to inhabitable building.

The A-Frame as Structure and Identity

Once assembled, Fold Bunk takes the recognizable form of an A-frame shelter.

Its sharply pitched roof extends almost to the floor, reducing the distinction between roof and wall and creating a strong triangular section. The geometry gives the small building a clear visual identity while also organizing its internal volume.

The form is particularly appropriate for a temporary village in a landscape setting. Rather than appearing as a conventional urban building reduced in scale, the shelter reads more like a lightweight hut or mountain refuge.

Placed repeatedly across a site, these triangular structures create a recognizable settlement language.

The opening image illustrates this clearly. Individual Fold Bunks are distributed loosely across the terrain, forming a small community rather than a rigid grid of identical units. Their repeated roof profiles give the settlement visual coherence while allowing each dwelling to retain its independence.

The result is architecture that can operate at two scales: the individual sleeping unit and the collective pilgrims village.

From a Package to a Place

One of the strongest aspects of Fold Bunk is the relationship between transportation and occupation.

The site plan identifies the structure in its compressed state as a transportable package. This compact configuration allows multiple building components to be moved without transporting the large amount of empty air normally contained within a completed cabin.

At the destination, the building undergoes a sequence of transformations.

The setup diagrams illustrate the assembly process step by step. A supporting base is established first. Floor components form the platform, structural frames are raised, enclosure elements are positioned, and roof panels complete the A-frame.

Mechanical connections, hinges, screws, rails, and panel joints allow the different components to operate together as a coordinated construction system.

This is where the project moves beyond formal experimentation.

Its architecture is inseparable from logistics.

The final shape is determined not only by how the shelter should look or feel, but by how each piece can be packed, transported, lifted, unfolded, connected, used, and potentially dismantled again.

Designing a Temporary Pilgrims Village

The village strategy expands this idea beyond the individual building.

The site drawing places groups of Fold Bunk units within a wider landscape rather than concentrating them into one large accommodation block. This dispersed arrangement creates a settlement that can respond more gently to its surroundings.

For pilgrims, such an organization also creates a different social experience.

Instead of entering a large dormitory, occupants inhabit a series of small shelters positioned around shared outdoor territory. The open spaces between the units become part of the village itself, supporting gathering, movement, rest, and informal interaction.

This produces an interesting balance between privacy and community.

Each Fold Bunk provides a defined sleeping environment, while the spaces outside the shelters create the collective realm.

The architecture therefore does not rely on a large central building to establish community. Community emerges through the relationship between many small structures.

Compact Living Inside the Fold Bunk

The section and plan drawings reveal how intensely the interior has been organized.

Within the limited A-frame envelope, sleeping platforms, bunks, ladders, tables, benches, storage surfaces, circulation zones, and foldable elements are integrated into the structure.

Rather than filling the shelter with independent pieces of furniture, Fold Bunk treats furniture as another layer of the architectural system.

This approach is particularly effective in compact accommodation.

A conventional bed permanently occupies floor area whether it is being used or not. A foldable sleeping platform can instead release space when required. Similarly, tables and benches can be incorporated into the wall or structural system, allowing the interior to shift between sleeping, sitting, and everyday use.

The drawings suggest multiple bunk levels arranged within the tall triangular volume. The steep roof geometry, which could otherwise create difficult leftover space, becomes an opportunity to organize sleeping areas vertically.

In this way, the project makes use of the full section rather than relying exclusively on the ground plane.

Architecture Through Section

The section is one of the most informative drawings in the proposal.

From outside, Fold Bunk appears extremely simple: a triangular roof placed over a rectangular platform.

Inside, however, that triangle becomes a complex inhabitable volume.

Sleeping areas occupy different levels, while ladders and compact circulation connect them. Foldable furniture occupies lower zones, and the upper portion of the structure provides additional spatial capacity beneath the roof.

This vertical organization demonstrates how small architecture can gain usable space through sectional design rather than footprint expansion.

For temporary settlements, that efficiency matters.

Increasing the floor area of every shelter increases material requirements, transportation volume, foundation area, assembly time, and impact on the site. Fold Bunk instead concentrates accommodation within a compact footprint and exploits height.

The triangular section therefore performs several roles simultaneously. It defines the building's identity, organizes the structure, encloses the interior, and creates the spatial depth needed for multiple sleeping positions.

A Component-Based Building System

The project’s component catalogue reinforces the modular architecture concept.

Rather than presenting the shelter as a single indivisible object, the designers break it into identifiable construction assemblies. Floor sections, wall panels, roof components, substructure members, and specialized connection pieces are documented individually.

The drawings also indicate their approximate dimensions, build-ups, and weights, showing consideration for transportation and assembly rather than treating prefabrication as a purely conceptual gesture.

This component-based methodology offers several potential advantages.

Damaged elements could theoretically be replaced without discarding an entire building. Components could be fabricated separately before arriving on site. Multiple units could share standardized parts. Shelters could also be dismantled after a pilgrimage period, stored, transported, and deployed again elsewhere.

These possibilities shift Fold Bunk away from the idea of disposable temporary architecture.

The project instead suggests a reusable architectural infrastructure.

Lightweight Materials and Layered Assemblies

The detailed drawings show a layered approach to the building envelope.

Timber-based structural and finish elements are combined with insulation, panel materials, membranes, translucent or transparent elements, and metal components. The roof and wall assemblies are conceived as constructed layers rather than simple surfaces.

This gives the lightweight shelter greater architectural depth.

A temporary building still has to manage rain, thermal comfort, structural stability, ventilation, daylight, and repeated use. Fold Bunk addresses these issues through conventional architectural assemblies adapted to an unusual foldable system.

The connection details are particularly important.

For a building that must repeatedly move between packed and assembled states, joints become as significant as surfaces. Hinges and mechanical fasteners allow components to move during deployment while stabilizing them during occupation.

The success of the building therefore depends on the precision of its interfaces.

This is a fundamental principle of modular architecture: components only become a coherent system when their connections are considered as carefully as the components themselves.

Prefabrication Without Losing Architectural Character

Temporary and prefabricated buildings can sometimes become purely utilitarian, optimized around transportation or manufacturing at the expense of spatial quality.

Fold Bunk attempts to avoid that outcome.

Its modular logic remains visible, but the completed structure still possesses a strong architectural presence. The A-frame silhouette gives each dwelling an almost archetypal image of shelter: roof, enclosure, threshold, and sleeping space reduced to a simple triangular form.

The visual simplicity of the final building contrasts with the complexity of the mechanisms that allow it to fold and unfold.

That contrast is one of the project's most compelling qualities.

The architecture does not advertise every mechanical operation. Once assembled, the technical system recedes and the object reads as a small dwelling within the landscape.

Architecture Designed for Reassembly

Conventional buildings are normally designed around permanence.

Their structural systems assume they will remain on one site, foundations are fixed, and construction typically moves in only one direction, from individual materials toward a completed building.

Fold Bunk proposes a different lifecycle.

Assembly is only one stage.

The building can conceptually move from storage to transport, from transport to deployment, from deployment to occupation, and eventually back toward disassembly and reuse.

That circular sequence changes the architect's responsibilities.

Connections must be reversible. Components must survive handling. Dimensions must respond to transportation. Construction sequencing must remain understandable. The building's value must persist beyond a single site or event.

This makes Fold Bunk relevant to broader discussions surrounding modular architecture, temporary housing, emergency shelter, festival infrastructure, remote accommodation, and adaptable construction.

Although conceived specifically as a sleeping house for pilgrims, the underlying system points toward other applications where short-term occupation and repeated deployment are necessary.

Small Architecture, Larger Infrastructure

At first glance, Fold Bunk is a project about a small sleeping shelter.

Viewed at the scale of the site, however, it becomes something larger.

Every unit acts as one component within a distributed accommodation network. Additional shelters can be placed where required, creating clusters of different sizes rather than requiring the construction of a single permanent complex.

This scalability is particularly compatible with pilgrimage, where population can fluctuate dramatically over time.

During periods of high demand, more units could form a larger village. When demand decreases, the architecture could potentially be dismantled or redistributed.

The settlement therefore behaves in much the same way as the building itself.

The house is assembled from components, while the village is assembled from houses.

This nested modularity gives the project a clear architectural logic from construction detail to landscape planning.

Rethinking Temporary Shelter Through Modular Architecture

Fold Bunk by Kaya Liffler and Lorenz Hahnheiser demonstrates how a highly specific program can generate a broader architectural investigation.

The project begins with a straightforward need: a foldable sleeping house for pilgrims.

From that starting point emerges a complete system concerned with compact transportation, prefabrication, assembly, lightweight construction, adaptable interiors, repeated deployment, and village formation.

Its greatest contribution is not simply that the structure folds.

It is that folding influences almost every architectural decision.

The dimensions of the panels, the position of structural members, the roof geometry, the organization of furniture, the construction joints, the transportation package, and the relationship between multiple units all respond to the same underlying idea.

As an Editor’s Choice entry of Encamp, Fold Bunk presents modular architecture as a tool for creating temporary environments that are efficient without becoming anonymous.

The proposal imagines architecture that can arrive compactly, unfold into inhabitable space, become part of a community, and potentially move again when its purpose has been fulfilled.

In doing so, Fold Bunk transforms the pilgrims village from a fixed collection of temporary shelters into a flexible architectural system, one designed not merely to occupy a landscape, but to arrive, assemble, adapt, and eventually leave it with a lighter footprint.