Best pop up tents: Set up camp in a flash with these stylish and comfortable tents

Tent building used to be an art seemingly known only by a few Bear Grylls-types, and classic designs remained unchanged for centuries.

All that changed in 2004, when the modern pop-up tent was invented and changed the landscape of camping forever.

Bournemouth University graduate Franziska Conrad is credited with inventing the Quick Pitch SS in 2004 as part of her final year product design project. Brought to market with outdoor company Gelert, it`s the tent you`re most likely to spot at festival camping fields.

Three big reasons explain its popularity: it`s lightweight at around 2kg, affordable at around £35, and takes just seconds to put up and peg down.

Gelert`s rival outdoor company Quechua lays claim to inventing the 2 Seconds tent, dreamt up by its tent project manager Jean-François Ratel in 2003. After six months of development, it launched a double skin pop-up tent, which would offer campers more protection and insulation against the elements. The idea of "a tent that you can throw in the air and that will assemble itself!" had been engineered into existence.

It`s little surprise that festival goers and casual campers went wild for this triple boon of bonuses, who are also likely to be carting around a bulky rucksack, sleeping bag and camping chair.

From camping to criminology, the tent also offers more practical uses - for police crime scenes, and as Conrad explains, as instant shelter for disaster zones: "thousands could be dropped from a plane in an isolated area, even if we were to scale it up in size."

Already threaded with super light telescopic poles in the canvas, the circular sections coil around in a double loop, or folded figure of eight, until they`re stacked compactly on top of each other. An elastic loop holds the compressed poles together so you don`t have to wrestle them in an out of their carrybag.

Chances are you won`t notice this when you get to your pitch and unleash the beast from its cage, but it`s a handy thing to remember when it`s going home time.