The deck
Every deck sits on precast pier blocks on the ground. Posts and joists go on the blocks and the decking is screwed down on top. Nothing is dug or poured, and the deck is made to come apart as easily as it goes together.
Our tents
Canvas, rope, and a crew. Up in a day, down the same way.
Guests at Camp Denman sleep in canvas tents. They are equipment we put up and take down, deck and all, in a day. Here is how one goes together, and how it comes apart again.
Watch it happen
Up, and then down again. Two cameras, one day.
The same tent filmed from two angles on 2 September 2026: pier blocks set on the ground, a deck framed on top, the frame raised, the canvas hung, and then the crew takes all of it back down to bare ground. Time-lapse; each clip runs about half a minute.
How a tent goes together
Five steps, and every one of them undoes.
The frame
A metal tent frame stands on plates screwed to the deck with hex-head screws, and the frame bolts to the plates with lag bolts and washers, so the wind off Baynes Sound cannot lift or shift it.
The inner canvas
The inner canvas clips to the frame with fabric loops and is screwed to a board inside the tent that holds floor panels you can lift out.
The outer canvas
The outer canvas laces over the frame with 10 mm rope through eyelets, tied off over the top of the frame and at the outside edge of the deck.
Back to bare ground
Nothing is nailed, glued, or welded. Every screw and bolt comes out with a cordless drill and a wrench, every knot unties, and the canvas, frame, decking, and blocks stack up and go back into storage. The ground is bare when it is gone.
Why canvas
Light on the land, close to the work.
The Elks have run and hosted camps on this land since the 1950s, with campers sleeping in the dormitories and out in the orchard. We sleep in canvas instead. Tents leave the forest and the orchard open, they go up by hand, and every January they all come down for maintenance and clean-up while the camp rests.
They are a short walk from the studios and the shared tables, which is the point. Days are for making; evenings are for the fire.
If you live on Denman and want to see how one goes together, write to hello@campdenman.com and come and look.
