Good Night Snoozy.

The Snoozy began life as a design concept addressing the question for a client, ‘if you were to use AirClad technology for a camping pod, what could it be?’

Having produced a few visuals based on stacking hexagon shaped pods the concept was put on hold.

A year later, the same client introduced us to a potential operator to buy the Snoozy (a name that came about as the reincarnation of a bed product we had designed in 2000), and the concepts were challenged from an operational point of view. It was apparent that these operational demands needed to be considered into the whole design process.

How many Snoozy could be stacked on a 40ft truck & How quickly could a Snoozy be installed?

Find the answers to these and we may just have a winning product!

The design process became a game of ‘Tetris’, challenging us to see how many we could squeeze onto a truck. Every element of the construction needed to go on a diet! We needed strength; weight was not an issue, as everything would be fork lifted off the truck and it would help with the stability of the end product.

Once we had the dimension and strength, it was all about speed of installation.

This challenged the components proposed and, over time, we realised the Snoozy would require every element to be bespoke produced, meaning tooling for every single element.

The capital investment required was out of budget for this initial operator and they sadly pulled out.

During the design evaluation process, we had made some 1:1 scale wooden models to test the geometry and that the space would be comfortable for 2 and maybe 4 people in beds. The results were more than promising and we knew that a 2.4m by 2.4m cube could work!

The project was stalled again, until a chance meeting with a UK plc called SnoozeBox.

SnoozeBox owns and operates container based hotels and was looking to AirClad as the solution to providing social space to its guests. We had a meeting to present the AirClad system and took the Snoozy presentation, just in case an appropriate time came to show them!

We got that opportunity and they loved it and we were able to back it up with all the knowledge we had developed over the year on how to operate and deploy. A brief was given to prove the concept into a reality.

We were challenged to produce a working prototype which would allow up to 40 units to be stacked on a truck and to then be installed in under 6 minutes once in situ. We had a self imposed time of 3 months to make it work as the launch date would be the following summer at Glastonbury and we need 6 months for tooling and production.

We needed to accommodate twin and double bed bases that needed to pack down within the frame of the Snoozy for transport and to be strong and durable for all kinds of activations.
We needed shelves, lighting, USB charge points and locking doors. As we were custom making every element we designed the main frame to incorporate all these elements so we could hide it all.

This in turn minimised the chance of breakages and resulted in a very clean and slick interior. For an added bonus, the lights were colour changing LED with a remote control unit, allowing you to lay in bed and adjust the mood lighting to suite.

The biggest design element beyond the purpose extruded aluminium frame to house all the electrics and sliding doors was a new hinge system which held the fascia to the flooring. This was the magic component, which not only made installation effortless, it also made it ridiculously fast and accurate with minimal risk to the equipment. The first test build went so fast that we were concerned that we had actually forgotten something out!

We filmed the whole process and uploaded for a very excited and expectant CEO of SnoozeBox.

Glastonbury camping grounds

Within 3 months we had the working prototype filmed and delivered to the client. The negations took place regarding the production and delivery of 210 units to Glastonbury within 6 months. Everything was unique and each production stage needed to be planned meticulously in our production facility in Belgium.

As part of the process we oversaw the full delivery and installation of the Snoozy. We trained the SnoozeBox crew and continued to support them on de-rig and further events that season. The Snoozy are still used and were at Glastonbury this year again.

AirClad delivered something unique, inspiring and ultimately functional to SnoozeBox.

The Snoozy bought the SnoozeBox room count up by 420 beds. The guests loved them and the speed of this neat little pod.

So it was a very goodnight Snoozy!

Good Night Snoozy.

How many Snoozy could be stacked on a 40ft truck & How quickly could a Snoozy be installed?

Once we had the dimension and strength, it was all about speed of installation.

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