Many people will tell you to go big or go home, but Jupe is asking you to go small and stay home.
Jupe calls its flat-packed portable shelters “cosmos-inspired urban escape pods,” which is more intriguing than “fancy tents.” As the tiny-living startup launched images of what Tesla, SpaceX and Airbnb designers created, Jupe is taking preorders for a refundable $99 deposit on the $17,500 homes.
It is the creation of Jeff Wilson, a former IBM project manager known as “Professor Dumpster” for when he lived in a 33-square-foot modified dumpster as a minimalist residential experiment. He also created and sold Kasita, another micro-housing company.
The 111-square-foot Jupe homes with a window are expected to be available by March for people looking to take the pods to remote locations or pop them up on existing properties. Hello to the coronavirus-concerned, nature lovers and Airbnb renters.
“The desire to get out of the cities that we’ve seen over the past decade and the acceleration of that trend during the pandemic has drained short-term stay inventory for those that want to experience nature,” Wilson said in a statement. “Further, the recent success of the IPOs in this space and the off-the-charts demand to ‘stay close’ make the timing for short-term stay products like Jupe impeccable.”
Targeting the crowd that is reluctant to spend thousands more on travel trailers, Jupe offers a canvas-walled, battery- and solar-powered prefab shelter that packs flat but constructs “in hours” with aluminum masts that create an 11-foot-high ceiling. A queen-sized bed, ottoman, desk and chair will fit on the wood-tiled floor, according to Jupe.
And when you’re done pitching your tent, er, home, you can sing, “Jupe, there it is.”
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