Design studio LAYER has once again partnered with innovative sleep start-up MAZZU to tackle a new frontier: the great outdoors. Their latest collaboration, the MAZZU Camping Mattress, is a pioneering foam-free sleeping system that promises to deliver the comfort of a domestic bed in a portable, modular format designed for the wild. Launching in October 2025, the project challenges the conventions of outdoor gear with a focus on ergonomic support, sustainability, and a radical new approach to how we sleep off-grid.
At the heart of this innovative design are 72 precision-engineered elastic spring units. These tower-like, pre-compressed coils are each encased in a durable jacket and function independently, adapting in height to follow the body’s contours. This technology provides targeted support whether a user is lying on their back or side, effectively bridging the gap between the supportive quality of a home mattress and the practical needs of a portable camping mattress. A slim topper adds a final layer of softness and evens out the surface for a seamless sleep experience.
The system’s modular design is key to its functionality and appeal. The components assemble intuitively using snap-fit connectors and paracord lashings, making setup straightforward. For transport, the spring units nest compactly together. The entire mattress—including its foldable base and topper—packs neatly into a wheeled case comparable in size to a cooler. Demonstrating thoughtful, multi-functional design, this case then doubles as a nightstand or storage box at the campsite, extending its utility beyond mere transport.
A central tenet of the project is its planet-positive performance. The design directly addresses the environmental and health concerns associated with the mattress industry’s reliance on polyurethane (PU) foam, which is energy-intensive to produce, difficult to recycle, and a source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). By creating a system that uses no foam or glue, and ensuring that every single component can be individually cleaned, repaired, or replaced, LAYER and MAZZU are championing circular economy principles and actively working to reduce waste.
This new camping mattress builds upon the success of the duo’s first project, the award-winning MAZZU Mattress. That initial foam-free home mattress, which also featured a modular construction, earned a prestigious Red Dot Design Best of the Best Award, establishing a shared ethos for challenging industry norms through sustainable, high-performance design. The camping iteration extends this philosophy beyond the bedroom, suggesting a new standard for responsible and restorative rest in any environment.
Founder of LAYER, Benjamin Hubert, encapsulates the ambition behind the project: “The MAZZU camping mattress brings high performance and modular sustainability to a completely new context. Traditional camping mattresses often compromise comfort for portability, but our goal was to bring both together in one system.” By reimagining the very architecture of a camping mattress, LAYER and MAZZU are not just offering a new product, but proposing a future where outdoor gear is intuitive to use, repairable, and uncompromising in its comfort.
For those following the evolution of sustainable sleep design, this partnership will be familiar. Readers of urdesign will recall our earlier coverage of the groundbreaking MAZZU Mattress, the first foam-free home mattress from this innovative duo. That project, which earned a Red Dot Design Best of the Best award for its modular and user-repairable design, laid the foundation for the principles now applied to the great outdoors. To delve deeper into the origins of this collaboration, explore our previous feature on the LAYER x MAZZU Mattress.