If you grew up in the country or suburbs, you may have wondered what it was like for the city-dwelling kids. City kids may be better at navigating public transportation, whereas kids in the country spend a lot more time carpooling.
That said, the city isn't always the most comfortable place in the summertime. New York smells like hot garbage and feels like dripping air conditioners.
While country kids have backyards to frolic around in during the summer, kids from the city have to fly the coop a little farther to get in touch with nature.
Luckily, organizations like the Beam Center — and more specifically, Beam Camp — exist to host kids from urban areas and get them in touch with wide open spaces.
This year, Beam campers got their hands dirty by building an intergalactic space station that is just as at-home in the New Hampshire woods as it would be orbiting earth.
[H/T: Beam Camp]
Beam campers would be nowhere without their fearless leader, Shing Yin Khor, the artist whose idea launched what would become Salvage Station No. 8.
As you can tell by the blueprints, building Salvage Station No. 8 was no easy task.
Luckily, over 90 kids aged 10 to 18 shipped up from New York City to Strafford, New Hampshire, where they got the job done.
The design for the project was chosen in an international design competition.
In the past, campers created experiential installations like giant flip-books.
This year's Salvage Station No. 8 was described as, "a sci-fi narrative of an abandoned space salvage station lost in the woods."
The final product is an interactive architectural exhibit that the campers can be proud of — and anyone else can enjoy.
As you may have guessed, the space station was just about as much fun to make as it is to visit.
The project is designed to help kids build problem-solving, carpentry, and artistic skills that will help them succeed outside of the woods, too.
The space station is complete with handmade props like these body parts, which live on the inside of the structure and give it a real space-station feel.
The space station is just as much about set design as it is carpentry skills.
The kids and the adults who helped supervise were instrumental in creating awesome props like these.
I'm not sure what "space pickles" are exactly, but the fact that they exist in Salvage Station No. 8 just goes to show how much thought and creativity went into the project.
Amazingly, the final product looks even better than the model it was built after.
If you've ever built anything, you know that success isn't necessarily a given.
You can really get the abandoned space station feel when you see it all lit up at night like this. It was definitely a job well done by Camp Beam campers.
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