Desert Seal, a foldable lightweight tent, is suitable for extreme environments. It makes the most of the desert's steep daily temperature curve by means of a solar-powered fan positioned at the top opening of the tent, which circulates cool air during the day and the warm air radiating from the desert floor at night; solar film-coated Mylar is being tested for added energy gain. The tents are tall enough that a person can stand fully upright inside. Educated as architects, Vittori and Vogler met at a congress of the European Space Agency and they have been separately involved in space design. The study for these tents was initiated by the agency to promote the application of inflatable technology and high-tech textile materials in extreme climates on earth.

Gallery label from

Born out of Necessity, March 2, 2012–January 28, 2013.

Manufacturer Prototype byAero Sekur, Italy
Medium Polyurethane-coated polyester fibre and silver coated mylar
Dimensions 6'10 3/4" x 39 1/2" x 7'2 1/2" (210 x 100 x 220 cm)
Credit Gift of Architecture and Vision
Object number 195.2006
Department Architecture & Design

Explore more

All works from 2000–2010 →

From MoMA Design Store

Installation views

We have identified this work in the following photos from our exhibition history.

How we identified these works
In 2018–19, MoMA collaborated with Google Arts & Culture Lab on a project using machine learning to identify artworks in installation photos. That project has concluded, and works are now being identified by MoMA staff.

If you notice an error, please contact us at [email protected].
Licensing
To reproduce installation views, please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations). You will need to include the object identification number found in the caption.
Feedback
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please send feedback to [email protected].

Licensing

Artwork or archival images

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA's collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

Audio and film clips

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.

Text from a publication or the archives

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA's archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].

Feedback

This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please fill out this feedback form.