Ar Vag

source: dezeen

Called Ar Vag, the vessel comprises rigid boards sewn into a waterproof skin so it can be unfolded quickly and stiffened by pushing two folding rods, like tent poles, into pockets in the rim. A wooden plank inserted through apertures in the walls holds the whole thing under tension and forms a seat. The project was on show at an exhibition of work from ECAL students called Too Cool for School in Milan last month.
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source: chaffchouf

un concept de barque pliable qui peut tenir dans un petit sac une fois rangé, iImaginé par Thibault Penven, étudiant à l’Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL) en Suisse.
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source: mdolla

The story behind Ar Vag foldable boat design began when this industrial designer met a passionate fisherman on the sunny shores of Lake Geneva. That’s when Thibault Penven decided to design a practical boat that you can literary carry anywhere with you, a foldable boat with oars for a short tour or a fishing trip. This boat is faster than inflatable dinghy and less cumbersome than a fixed attachment.

Ar Vag is basically a small boat in kit which you can carry as backpack, it fits like a tent and you can store it easily. The hull of this boat is constructed from a series of fiberglass sheets covered with heat welded plastic tarpaulin. To set sail, you can simply unfold the thin, light hull of the boat and rigidify it with the central bench that functions as keystone to form the final shape and ready to use.
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source: fastcodesign

Thibault Penven says he was walking along the banks of Lake Geneva last year when he met a “passionate” fisherman. The details of that meeting remain mysterious, but it must have been a pretty good conversation–it inspired Penven’s graduation project at University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL). “I decided to design a boat,” the industrial design student remembers, “intended for use as a shuttle between the shore and a boat.”

Ar Vag is Penven’s answer to the traditional dinghy. Unveiled at Design Miami last week, the boat folds into a tiny square of material that can be worn as a backpack. Ar Vag isn’t meant for long adventures–rather, it’s a shuttle to take you from shore to a larger boat. Like Paul Elkins’ foldable kayak, Penven’s boat is super-lightweight. And unlike traditional inflatable dinghies, Ar Vag assembles in minutes for Life Aquatic-style exploits (that’s how I imagine using it, at least).

Ar Vag’s assembly sequence seems similar to a run-of-the-mill camping tent. The plastic sheet unfolds and a series of metal rods are strung along its edges to give it shape. The bench is what keeps the whole thing stable (“like a keystone,” explains Penven), acting as cross-bracing for the flimsy shell. When it’s completely folded up, the boat can be worn like a backpack.

“The hull of the boat consists of a series of fiberglass sheets, covered with heat welded plastic tarpaulin,” Penven writes in a press release. Heat welding is a pretty common industrial fabrication technique, involving the use of a heat gun to create watertight seams between plastic pieces. But it’s rarely used in schools, or by independent designers. Penven says that learning the process was “very difficult… but very rewarding.”