The Portal: Jupe
Our mission while designing and building The Portal was to create aproduct that transforms the normally terrible port-a-potty experience into a fun and inspiring one. We wanted the space to feel large and luxurious. We also wanted to incorperate an important traight of the larger JUPE, the ambient noise and connection to nature you feel while inside the tent. The Portal is meant to go anywhere the Jupe can go. This allows it to be situated in some amazing places with some amazing views. The floor to cieling one way mirrored window in the front of the unit allows you to take in the views from atop the throne. The James Turrell inspired moon roof is meant to connect you to the sky along with the view out of the front window.
Build Process: Portal 4.0
The Portal went through five total iterations. Each prototype was building on the last. Our mission each time was to make it faster to erect, more durable once erected, lighter for shipping, more space efficient for shipping and all the while maintaining as much of the magic of the experience as possible. This value engineering process is always a balancing act between initial design intent and the reality of cost and physics. The experience of creating this balance with my engineer counter-part, Liang Yao, was one of the most valuable experiences of my career. I learned so much about design for manufacturing and what a design/ engineering team enviroment should feel like. I'm very proud of what our team of two was able to acccomplish.
The Final Portal: 5.0
Before Jupe ultimately closed its doors in 2023, Liang and I designed, fabricated and deployed one last Portal in the hills of Petaluma. It was the lightest, easiest to deploy, smallest BOM cost, brightest and most reflective Portal of the five.
