Our tents

Canvas, rope, and a crew. Up in a day, down the same way.

Guests at Camp Denman sleep in canvas tents on detached ground-level decks. Each deck sits on concrete pavers on the ground. The tents 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.

A Camp Denman canvas tent on a detached ground-level wooden deck. Concrete pavers sit on the ground under the joists, with open air between the deck and the grass. — Each tent stands on its own detached ground-level deck. The deck sits on concrete pavers on the ground. Nothing is dug or poured.

Watch it happen

Up, and then down again. Two cameras, one day.

The same tent filmed from two angles on 2 September 2026: concrete pavers set on the ground, a detached ground-level 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.

Camera 1

Camera 2

How a tent goes together

Five steps, and every one of them undoes.

The deck

Each tent stands on its own detached ground-level deck. The deck sits on concrete pavers laid on the ground. Posts and joists go on the pavers 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.

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 pavers 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 ran a camp on this land for decades, 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 are assembled by hand, and they stay up year-round.

They are a short walk from the studios and the shared tables, which is the point. Days are for creating; 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.

A canvas tent surrounded by nature and trees at Camp Denman