This study developed and tested the idea of alternative furniture to be used at campsites. It is motivated by the fact that alternative tourism, as outdoor lodging, has remarkably increased in the last five years. The main purpose of this change is the financial crisis that started in 2008 for some European countries and spread to Greece during 2009. With this in mind, an extensive research has been conducted about people’s needs around that type of vacations. At first, a focus group was conducted to acquire feedback regarding the campers’ wishes and then a questionnaire was distributed in order to collect quantifiable data. The results revealed that the primary needs are inexpensive products and easily transported with low environmental impact. More specifically, they showed that useful equipment such as furniture is traded off because of heavy load and high prices. After this stage, a market research have been performed and variant concept designs have been developed through sketches and 3D modeling using the software SolidWorks, until the optimal concept to be determined. At the same time, with the setting of several constraints, the possible materials were researched through the databases of CES EduPack. The following step was the estimation of sustainability of the developed concept and the durability of it by stress analysis. Finally, a cost analysis was executed to verify if the final products correspond to the preference of low price. After testing three eco-friendly materials, cardboard, bamboo and pine wood, it became obvious that the best possible choice is cardboard furniture that can effectively last for the camping days and can totally be recycled after its use and of course without spending a large amount of money to obtain.
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