Artist Andrea Zittel introduces a new range of sleeping outdoor pods with housing amenities in the California desert. Called Wagon Station Encampment, several mobile small-sized camping pods allow artists, writers, thinkers, hikers, campers or those who are engaged in other forms of cultural or personal research. 

The Wagon Station Encampment consists of twelve A-Z Wagon Stations, a communal outdoor kitchen, open air showers, and composting toilets. The encampment is an intimate community so Andrea Zittel looks for people who are thoughtful, considerate and contributors. Ideally you will be a kitchen cleaner, a cool chest organizer, and you won’t mind sometimes making extra coffee to share with others in the morning.

While you are traveller or not, a refugee or not, you will be staying in a very futuristic sleeping pods with your private space comfortably. Wagon Stations are also rescuer places for many refugees since they present very minimum place to stay, eat and sleep in the secured zone.   

The Encampment is open during two “open seasons” each year: one month in the fall (usually October) and one month in the spring (generally between April 15th and May 15th). Each “open season” is divided into week-long sessions – visitors ideally stay for 1 or 2 sessions, with arrivals occurring on Sunday and departures on Saturday. 

To reserve a spot, the artist requires those interested to submit a completed application, a short bio, and a non-refundable $20 application fee. If your application is accepted, then the artist will require a $100 weekly session fee in order to complete your reservation.

Andrea Zitter announced its open seasons on his website; 2016 Fall “Open Season” Sessions include October 2-8, October 9-15, October 16-22, October 23-29, October 30-November 5. Deadlines: May 27th:  Applications due June 10th: Applicants notified of acceptance or wait list.

The A-Z Wagon Station Encampment is located in A-Z West, which takes place on over fifty acres in the California high desert next to Joshua Tree National Park.  Since it’s inception in fall 2000, A-Z West has been undergoing an ongoing conversion into the artist's testing grounds for “A-Z designs for living”.

The artists's office also offers touristic tours of A-Z West are offered six times a year as a fundraising activity for High Desert Test Sites. Tours last about two hours and offer a glimpse into Zittel’s home base, the Wagon Station Encampment, Regenerating Field, Shipping Container Compound, studio, guest cabin and more.

All images courtesy of Andrea Zittel 

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