When she got the commission to build the central pavilion for northern Europe’s largest design event, Dutch architect Marjan van Aubel immediately looked for collaborators to help her highlight the power of the sun.

“Marjan van Aubel called us in May, asking: can you help? …Of course, it was short notice, so we had to move quickly,” explains Michiel Raaphorst, co-founder of V8 Architects. “Three days later, we met with Marjan and Miriam van der Lubbe, the Creative Head of DDW. While sketching, we came up with a surface that allows you to harvest solar energy but also forms a meaningful part of the environment.”

“We use technology to represent a natural phenomenon, and to do so, we harvest the energy from that natural phenomenon itself. So the solar pavilion represents the energy of the sun and cooperation,” Raaphorst adds. “All these parties worked together to realize this project because we all believe in Marjan van Aubel’s message: the time for a solar revolution is now.”

The two groups came up with a gazebo whose shape followed the slope of a cloth beach chair. Supported by four steel masts, the roof was fashioned from 380 wafer-thin glass solar panels in happy shades of red, orange, yellow, and blue. From above, it looked like a sun rising in a blue sky.

The collection of colorful photovoltaic tiles produced roughly 7.5 kilowatts of energy during peak performance hours, sending enough juice to an onsite battery to provide light and heat for all evening visitors. The intended effect was to allow guests to experience the sensation of sitting in the sun even in its absence.

The underside of the roof was left exposed for maximum technological transparency. “The structure contains about five thousand kilos of solar panels,” Raaphorst explains. “We deliberately left all the connections, wires, and discs visible so visitors can see how everything works. A practical view of the structure.”

The design teams also included two connecting staircases that led to a viewing porthole where visitors could have their picture taken via an app. “Up there, you suddenly find yourself in this other world: the solar field,” Raaphorst muses. Underneath the pavilion, a reflective circular bench and steel and wood seats provided places for observers to rest throughout the day.

V8 Architects and Marjan van Aubel Studio also pulled in a dozen other companies to help with parts and assembly. In keeping with the eco-friendly ethos, they borrowed most of the standard building and energy components, returning each part to its owners after the event for a circular resource design.

The architects were excited for the chance to show how earth-conscious technology like solar can and should be incorporated into everyday life. Says Raaphorst, “Currently, energy is only harvested in a techno-functional way. We explore how to integrate the sun’s energy into our daily lives so that we can love and embrace it.”

“Solar energy needs a new, more personal perspective that is part of our culture,” adds Marjan van Aubel. “This pavilion demonstrates that solar energy can be experienced and used in a new way.”

The post Colorful Solar Pavilion Brings Shade to Dutch Design Week first appeared on Dornob.

The idea for Muuw started during the pandemic when Tommy Truup, an expert in steel fabrication, decided he wanted to create work-from-home spaces that could also act as backyard retreats. Truup founded Muuwspace and designed his ideal one-room escape, with a shape inspired by beehives and the carbon structures in human cells.

Three of the pod’s six walls are floor-to-ceiling windows, so the 100-square-foot space feels much more expansive than it really is. Insulated glazing from Saint-Gobain features a metallic blue external reflection so you can maintain privacy and avoid getting overheated.

The cabin is constructed from durable galvanized steel, insulated fully for all climates, and capable of withstanding a heavy snow load on its roof. It also boasts luxurious floor heating, a quiet speed-controllable ventilation system, dimmable LED lights inside and out, a triple-glazed aluminum entry door, wall-integrated speakers, five electrical sockets, and two separate USB charging sockets. It even comes with an attached terrace with a frame made of hot dip galvanized steel.

A variety of interior finishes are available for the Muuw backyard work pod, including oak laminate on the ceiling and walls. The outdoor deck and screen at the entrance of the pod can be made of ash or pine wood. Buyers customize the Muuw to their liking and send the order to Muuwspace’s factory, where it’s built and delivered to the installation site in separate pieces. Assembly takes just one or two days depending on access to the installation site, which could be a backyard, garden, terrace, or even remote land. The whole thing is delivered on the back of a truck.

“Muuw can be used as an add-on to your main home or placed in a completely separate area of your choice – depending on whether you’d use it for focused work, productivity, reading, self-development, hobbies, or full relaxation,” the company says. “The interior is a calming, personal space – fitting snugly inside the building’s hexagonal structure. Each Muuw space boasts modern interiors and vast, panoramic views.”

“The unique exterior design also feels incredibly contemporary, using minimalistic materials combined with warm, traditional wood that’s sure to attract everyone’s attention. Just picture yourself stood in the Muuw, looking out over the horizon – we guarantee it will provide you with the feeling that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to, with relaxation being the key to productivity and accomplishment.”

Pricing for each Muuw pod starts at $32,000, depending on the options you choose. Muuwspace is currently able to deliver and assemble the pods throughout Europe and the United States, including the UK, Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland. It takes 8 to 16 weeks to receive your Muuw after ordering.

The post Upgrade Your Home Office with the Muuw Backyard Work Pod first appeared on Dornob.

Co-designed and built with teachers and 44 students from Haroun Tazieff high school in Saint-Paul-lés-Dax, France, ProtoCAMPO is the third iteration of a building technique developed by Frédérique Barchelard and Flavien Menu, themselves former fellows of Villa Medici (2019-2020). The first was the Proto-Habitat, built during their stay in Rome, and the second was the SOLARproto, a 300-square-meter exhibition space built in Amsterdam. ProtoCAMPO takes those concepts and builds upon them, tailored to its unique environment and purpose in one of the city’s most beautifully preserved Renaissance palaces — not to mention home to The French Academy in Rome.

“ProtoCAMPO is both low-tech and high-tech,” explain the designers. “Low tech, as it is assembled by hand using traditional and basic carpentry and joinery assemblage techniques to build up the prefabricated timber pieces. High-tech, in the conception of the inflatable cupola that can be implemented in less than an hour to unfold a six-meter diameter dome weighing only 300 kilograms. protoCAMPO subtly plays with the rhythm of the Villa Medici’s garden framing views of the 200-year-old pine trees and the historic villa. The repetitive timber structure echoes the Renaissance grid structure of the garden being both classical and wild. The dialogue between the pavilion and the surrounding nature evolves over the day, playing with the sun’s path and the rhythm of the garden.”

The cupola of the pavilion shelters up to 350 occupants while remaining open to the sun and wind, and the wooden base is sturdy enough to withstand heavy traffic. In the first week of the festival, protoCAMPO welcomed 300 high school students as part of the Residence Pro educational program developed by Villa Medici with the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region. Now, it’s hosting events, concerts, dinners, shows, and some of the villa’s cultural events for the remainder of the year. Like WALD’s other “proto-architecture” projects, it’s prefabricated, locally sourced, and modular, so it can be quickly assembled and disassembled. No word yet on how it will be used next.

Located near Rome’s famous Spanish Steps, the Villa Medici was designed by Bartolomeo Ammanati and built by Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando de Medici in the 16th century as an estate and open-air museum celebrating the Medici family’s influence in Rome. Its grounds include Roman bas-reliefs and statues, botanical gardens, formal gardens, and palatial architecture. In 1803, it became home to The French Academy in Rome, which aims to welcome artists, creators, and art historians in residence, curate cultural and artistic programs, and conserve the palace’s architectural and landscape heritage.

The post ProtoCAMPO: An Inflatable Dome-Shaped Pavilion for the Villa Medici in Rome first appeared on Dornob.

Painted black on the outside, the shipping container pool is level with an elevated wooden deck that offers just enough room for a pair of lounge chairs. Measuring the standard 8 feet wide, 8.5 feet high, and 20 feet long, the pool has been fitted with a waterproof liner, built-in bench seating, and underwater lighting. It was professionally made by Modpools, a company that sells shipping container pools all over the United States and Canada, and features an automation system by Pentair that lets you control the lights, pH, and sanitizer performance via smartphone.

Modpools are self-contained portable units, so once you have one, you can take it with you when you move, if you want. All you need is a crane and a flat deck truck. They can be installed above ground, in-ground, or somewhere in between, and they come with an optional lightweight divider wall that turns half of the pool into a hot tub on demand. If you want to try one in person, check out the Casa Cosmos Airbnb in Desert Hot Springs, California, which has a nearly-identical pool to the one at this Joshua Tree residence.

The rest of the home is nothing to sneeze at, either. The renovation was spearheaded by Karen McAloon, former host of the television shows Find Your Style and Design Remix on HGTV and co-founder of design firm X8 Property & Design. McAlool has turned a number of Joshua Tree homes from drab and dated to vacation rental-worthy, and her work on 636 Valencia Drive will have you dreaming of warm arid nights with sage and pinyon pine in the air. The home boasts a Morso fireplace, 26-foot hand-plastered bench, handmade white oak cabinets in the kitchen, and a 45-square-foot white quartz island.

The primary bedroom, which opens onto a private Saltillo tiled patio, features a generously sized en-suite bathroom with a dual walk-in shower. Two guest rooms open to the front patio and share a bathroom with a Roman clay wall treatment. An adjacent garage has been converted to a one bedroom, one bathroom guest casita for even more hosting capabilities.

If you love the idea of a shipping container pool but want to save some cash, it is possible to DIY this project. It can be as cheap and simple as adding a pond liner to a clean, watertight container or more high-end and durable with a fiberglass liner insert. Check out our guide to shipping container pools for more details. For even more of a fun DIY spirit, you can even transform an old dumpster into a swimming pool.

The post You’re Going to Want to Copy This Modern Shipping Container Pool in Joshua Tree first appeared on Dornob.

Made of waterproof and fire-resistant fabric in bright white, the tent is made to stand out. During the day, it looks like a small cabin vividly visible against a backdrop of dark woods. At night, when it’s illuminated from the inside, it glows like a lantern. So whether you’re heading off on a hike or just trying to pee at 3 a.m., you’ll always be able to find your way back to your cozy nest. Yibei describes it as a “cloud,” as if you pulled a wisp of a shelter down from the sky and set it down in your ideal camping spot.

The inflatable tent boasts a simple shape with a triangular roof and rectangular body. Made of 210D Oxford polyester with polyurethane coating on the fabric and seams, it’s durable enough to use in most weather conditions, including rain. Instead of unwieldy and annoying poles, the tent is held up by its airframe made of flexible, flat-pack TPU pipes that expand to 120 millimeters when inflated. The frame is designed to mimic the columns and beams of an actual stick-framed house. The tent also expands to an impressive 8 feet by 7 feet with a much higher ceiling than you’d normally get in a traditional tent, making it feel even more like a hut or cabin.

The best part of all might just be the tent’s many generously-sized windows. One giant window on each side can be opened to the fresh air, with insect screens to protect you from bugs, of course. The tent even has two huge skylights for stargazing after dark. The result is a space that feels fully connected to your outdoor setting while maintaining protection from the elements. The large size also means you can stand up to change in private, or set up a table and chairs to dine indoors in inclement weather.

Yibei explains that “when you enter the cozy white space, the ceiling is high and the room wrapped in white fabric is very bright. Opening windows on all sides connects the inside and outside, blurring the boundaries. In the forest, you can just hear the trees blowing in the wind, the chirping of birds, and the smell of wood and earth. The sound of the waves and the scent of the tide create a pleasant time on the beach. When it gets dark, close the windows and turn on the lights, and you’ll be able to relax in the comfort of your own warm home.”

The Air Architecture inflatable tent comes in a portable carry bag and can be inflated with any standard battery-powered air pump. The one downside may be that it takes a full eight minutes to fully inflate, which could drain the battery quickly. It’s also likely that the tent will slowly start to sag after a while if you set it up for a long trip, but if that happens, all it takes is a quick top-off of air through the tent’s valve.

Alas, if you’re chomping at the bit to hit “add to cart,” the tent is currently only available in Japan at Tsutaya Home Appliances+, so it might be a little hard to get your hands on in other countries.

The post Air Architecture’s House-Shaped Inflatable Tent is a Perfect Home Away from Home first appeared on Dornob.

“This project was an opportunity to make new experiences within the Gomos building system: in each house, all the technical installations (water, electricity, and climatization) were concentrated in just one module and extended to the other models externally,” the architects say. “This procedure was standardly repeated in the whole project, accelerating its production/assembly process.”

Summary’s Gomos building system consists of concrete modular elements that simplify the building process. Derived from the way ordinary sewer pipes are constructed, the system is redesigned in order to make it habitable while preserving the stability and rapid deployment abilities of the concrete shells. It takes just a few days to assemble the buildings once they arrive on site.

Summary calls this system “evolutionary,” explaining that each module leaves the factory completely ready to live in, including all interior and exterior finishes, insulation, windows, water and electricity, and even built-in furniture. The system is designed to be flexible, so the structures can be sized up or down or given slightly different proportions according to the user’s needs.

In Paradinha, this translates to a series of angular modern buildings sheltered from the harsh sunlight and set at just the right angles to take advantage of the views. To the casual observer, the location of each one may seem a bit random, as if they were scattered across the plot and allowed to remain where they fell. But in reality, they were carefully arranged to follow the contours of the landscape and create privacy for the inhabitants of each one.

“They are distributed across the plot according to the natural configuration of the terrain, altering it as little as possible,” say the architects. “The old stone walls and the existing trees were preserved — the houses were carefully placed around them. Combining this apparently arbitrary positioning with different orientations allowed the houses not to block each other’s views. From the balconies, behind the wooden slates, we can see the forest and, in some cases, the river.”

The project proves that modularity doesn’t have to mean cookie-cutter identical structures all in a row. The concrete prefab cabins consist of four different shapes and sizes, ranging from 300 square feet to 625 square feet. Some are oriented horizontally, others vertically, their layout determined by pre-existing trees and landscape features. Each one features inscrutable concrete facades pierced by geometric windows, with one all-glass facade screened with latticed wood for shade in the heat of the afternoon.

“Resorting to prefabricated structures was not just a choice, but the only efficient option we had to simplify the building process within such conditions,” the architects explain.

The post Modular Concrete Cabins Offer Guests Privacy and Picturesque Views in Portugal first appeared on Dornob.

Joining forces with renowned architect Masayuki Sono, winner of NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, Serendix and Sono designed a small house that could be printed quickly enough to serve as emergency housing after a natural disaster like an earthquake or hurricane that destroys the population’s homes.

“The skeleton weighed about 20 tons, and its assembly was completed in 3 hours,” Serendix said in a press release. “Housing construction such as waterproofing and openings was completed in just 23 hours and 12 minutes.”

While the assembly time doesn’t include installation of windows, doors, or interior features, these can be prefabricated and added on site within a few extra hours, allowing these “instant homes” to provide temporary shelter for disaster victims in as little as a day after a catastrophe hits.

The entire pod costs just 3 million yen, or roughly $25,000 USD, to construct thanks to the lack of human labor required. “Using a 3D printer and advanced robotics, we are working on a design that only works with robots and uses as little human hand [input] as possible,” the firm explains.

The home’s distinctive shape was chosen because of its large surface area-to-volume ratio and for its high structural stability. The Sphere is fashioned from 12 identical base segments cut from a cylinder. The pieces are then assembled into a single cocoon-like form. The result is a pod that can look round, square, or hexagonal depending on the particular vantage point.

“This creates a dynamic effect as if it is constantly changing its profile as people walk around the structure,” the firm says. “When multiple units are installed in a cluster such as in the case of cottage or camping ground, this provides diversity and avoids the next house from looking monotonous while maintaining a consistent design vocabulary.”

With its rib-reinforced double shell structure, the 3D-printed dwelling meets both European heat insulation performance standards and Japanese seismic operation requirements. And because it’s made up of separate but easily conjoined parts, the Sphere can be manufactured either onsite or pre-printed as needed. “The goal is to print each unit on ite for highest efficiency,” Serendix says on its website. “Due to identical base geometry of all [pieces] it can also be pre-printed in a controlled factory environment and assembled onsite in case the site condition limits use of in situ printing.”

The 3D-printed structure can also easily be customized for multiple uses. The “window locations can be flexibly adjusted and even the entire base model can be rotated in [a] vertical orientation to achieve variations in design and form.” This could include vaulted, domed, and pitched roof profiles. Multiple units can also be connected to create larger spaces for bigger families or community groups.

Serendix reports that it has already printed its first full-scale prototypes on two different continents and assembled a proof-of-concept unit in Japan. The firm is further improving the fabrication process for upgraded models.

The post This 3D-Printed Housing Pod Can Be Built in Under a Day for Less than the Price of a Car first appeared on Dornob.

Considering that the minimum wage hasn’t kept pace with inflation since 1968, what’s the average resident to do? An unprecedented number of unhoused people have no choice but to sleep on the streets. While some city governments are simply sweeping the houseless population from one park to the next like a game of whack-a-mole, groups like DignityMoves are focusing on building communities of tiny homes as a temporary measure until more permanent housing can be secured.

DignityMoves announced two inaugural communities in San Francisco and Santa Barbara last month, which cost about $30,000 per room (including all communal spaces) and took just a few months to build. Architecture firm Gensler joined tiny home builder Boss Homes to design prefabricated panel systems that could be assembled on sites secured by DignityMoves – typically vacant land or sparkling lots. Each project offers 70 rooms as well as shared bathroom and shower facilities, dining buildings, computer labs, clinics, and community spaces. The 33 Gough Street community in San Francisco has already begun welcoming residents.

“Central to DignityMoves’ vision is that everyone receives a private room with a door that locks,” the group explained in a press release. “Many experiencing homelessness are reluctant to accept beds in traditional group shelters. DignityMoves believes offering this sense of security will make clients more willing to engage in the critical supportive services needed to address the barriers to stable housing. One resident shared, ‘When I was living in my tent, I felt like I was constantly in survival mode, worried about my safety and where I might find my next meal. Now I am warm and dry and can lock my door at night.’”

These temporary, portable tiny homes are designed to last about 20 years. For structures that need a longer lifespan, DignityMoves partners with other manufacturers like Connect Homes, who built a 60-room community on city-owned land in the city of Rohnert Park. The group also collaborates with local agencies who provide supportive services like case management, mental and behavioral healthcare, job placement, and housing placement support. Private philanthropy and impact investors provide the funding.

San Francisco’s tiny home village will replace a city-sanctioned “safe sleeping village” full of tents. Though not exactly luxurious, the tiny houses are certainly an improvement over fabric shelters, especially in winter.

Crucially, DignityMoves sees them as just one tool in a toolkit for addressing homelessness; they’re not an all-in-one solution. What comes next is much more important. Organizers need only look to the spectacular failure of another recent attempt at offering temporary-to-permanent shelter to see why.

After authorities cleared an encampment at Echo Park in Los Angeles and provided transitional housing under a state program called Project Roomkey, only 17 people received long-term housing out of 183 displaced campers. Some of those people reported being placed in a prison-like environment with strict curfews, no-visitor policies, and requirements that they come with no personal belongings. Some rules, like mandatory daily room checks, made it hard for people to find work. Some got kicked out, some chose to leave, and only a few ever received housing vouchers. Those who did reported being unable to find landlords who would take them.

Ultimately, the project demonstrates that automatically treating unhoused people like criminals isn’t the answer to the homelessness crisis. Housing needs to be more affordable for everyone, and achieving that is going to require massive systemic changes in the way we monetize real estate, compensate employees, and structure wealth in this country.

The post Can a New Tiny Home Village Help Address California’s Homelessness Crisis? first appeared on Dornob.

When approached to design a vacation rental in the rural Nakhon Nayok area two hours outside of Bangkok, architect Tung Jai Ork Baab had to get creative to work around the narrow village roads, which make it difficult for large construction vehicles to get through. On top of that, the region is plagued by a lack of skilled contractors and construction workers. For both of these reasons, utilizing a prefabricated structure seemed like the easiest and safest choice. Thus, the idea of the “Container Cabin” was born.

Since the project would be located in the low and marshy land of an empty rice paddy, Tung Jai Ork Baab started by having a small reservoir dug out, using the dirt to fashion enough high ground for a house and accompanying orchards. With the ferocity of Thailand’s rainy season, being built on a raised berm was essential for protection against potential flooding.

Employing the notion of an all-weather, indoor-outdoor space, the architect connected two 20-foot shipping containers to craft the main common room, adding full floor-to-ceiling windows on the ends to let in plenty of light, with the original loading doors providing shelter during storms.

An open-air courtyard connects the living room to the dining and pantry space, housed by yet another container. That gateway deck, with a second-story shipping container forming the roof, is intended to be the home’s main gathering space, thanks to the perpetually warm weather in the area. Chairs and cushions are scattered throughout the courtyard for lounging in the tropical temperatures, with a tire swing suspended from the ceiling for the enjoyment of little vacationers.

The top floor container comprises a private bedroom, with the tall A-frame creating balconies and alfresco lounge areas all around the sleeping quarters. The shape of the cabin was intentional: the sloped rooflines shade the entire residence, avoiding the problem of heat transfer to the metal containers. One section of the roof was replaced with a translucent material to let natural light into the middle deck. Steel plate louvers are built into the frame to deflect frequent rains but still allow light and wind to flow through the entire space for ventilation.

An outdoor cooking area bridges the gap between the A-frame and a detached container bedroom. That room connects to an above-ground pool encased in a deck space that seriously bumps up the rural getaway’s recreation game. And since the vacation home was designed with traveling families in mind, the front of the property also features a wooden playground and sandbox structure.

The interior spaces throughout were painted a fresh white for a clean and airy feel. The exterior got an earthy brown treatment, helping it to blend in with the natural environment.

This Container Cabin is a beautiful addition to the resourceful (sometimes questionable) architectural trend of using cheap and readily available shipping containers as housing accommodations when circumstances allow.

The post Shipping Containers Make Up This Beautiful Vacation Home in Rural Thailand first appeared on Dornob.

Tranter has been fascinated by tiny homes for years and always hoped to build one of her own. Once she met Matt, a plumber who now owns his own bathroom and kitchen renovation company, she was ready to get started. The couple purchased a plot of land with beautiful views of the surrounding Blue Mountains and got right to work, detailing their building process on Instagram.

“Just because your house is small doesn’t mean you have to skip out on the finer things,” the couple says. That much is evident in their build, which includes a spacious living room, full size kitchen, bathroom, fireplace, and even a stairway leading to two separate sleeping lofts at either end of the house. They wanted standard size appliances, so they built the kitchen around them, tucking the refrigerator and range beneath the stairway leading to the sleeping loft. The kitchen also includes a farmhouse sink, a long waterfall-style counter, high cabinets, lots of built-in lighting, and a row of operable windows to let in the fresh air.

Diagonal wood floors transition seamlessly into hexagonal tile in the bathroom, where a huge louvered window blurs the lines between indoors and out. The bathroom also contains a dual vanity and a double shower with three shower heads, sliding glass doors, and a wide window for views of the scenery. Upstairs, the master loft has a king-size bed with two side tables and a skylight, and a walkway leads over the living room to the second loft, which contains a guest bed. This bed, too, has its own skylight, and both peer over the edge at the wood stove below. Does it seem like they’re lacking any little luxuries to you?

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that they have a massive deck that effectively triples their living space in this temperate climate. The outdoor living area is covered by a custom black sunshade that matches the black corrugated steel siding on the minimalist house. The elevated deck is definitely a bonus. Pet lovers will note an awesome extra feature: a huge mesh-covered patio out back, accessed by a cat door in the house.

Since building their own home, the couple has founded a tiny house building company called Tailored Tiny Co., which specializes in tailoring custom-made small spaces to their clients’ needs and lifestyles.

The post Australian Couple Builds a Stylish DIY Tiny Home in Just 3 Months first appeared on Dornob.

Contributing to its awe-inspiring presence is the fact that it’s three stories tall – certainly not the kind of modest structure you’d expect to come upon while walking in the woods. Designed as a vacation home for a Finnish-born client who now lives in California, the stark modern cabin is visually inspired by its setting in remote Kontiolahti, within rocky terrain full of jagged boulders.

This sense of drama is integral to the experience, according to the architects. They want visitors to glimpse it through the trees as they approach on foot, wondering what on earth this “mystical dark object” could be. Its facade is entirely inscrutable by night, and in the daytime, it’s no less mysterious, albeit a little less intimidating.

The polyhedron-shaped building is made of prefabricated cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, a relatively new innovation in the world of engineered lumber that’s extra strong and lightweight, enabling timber buildings to take on all kinds of shapes and sizes. The thick wood walls are also air-insulated, and all functional and utility elements are disguised within them for a minimalist effect. Even the roof is made of solid wood, oiled to protect it from the elements.

Meteorite’s interior is enchanting in a whole different way, lined with pale wood and brightened up by natural light. Transparent acrylic railings along the stairs and landings add to that sense of airiness, while hardware-free black cabinetry is set within the walls to create a visual anchor. A central atrium rises all the way to the top floor, where a 107-square-foot skylight provides unobstructed views of the stars. A net on the third floor even offers a built-in hammock for lounging, reading, and napping.

“Meteorite is not a large house, but on the inside it represents a completely new 3-dimensional open-concept way of organizing living space,” says Ateljé Sotamaa co-founder Kivi Sotamaa. “Unlike traditional houses where each room has a specific predetermined purpose, Meteorite’s architecture supports more dynamic relationships of its residents and a variety of life situations. Digital design and new prefabrication and construction technologies enable the creation of unique, aesthetically high-quality ecological wood buildings that add experiential value to their locations.”

Client Ulla-Maaria Koivula, who’s the founder and CEO of education technology provider ThingLink, had the cabin built on her grandparent’s old homestead. It was initially envisioned as a vacation home that would be visited a few times a year, but due to the pandemic and California wildfires, the family decided to live in it full-time and work from home.

”Every building materializes our relationship with the natural environment,” Koivula says. ”My inspiration to have a unique wood house built in this country sprouted from the rocky hills and rugged woods of Koli, rich in erratic boulders that also served Finland’s defense during the Winter War. Meteorite reflects the connection my soul has to Finnish nature, and looking through one of its large windows to the misty fields around takes me back to the calm days of childhood.”

“We use the house as a creative space for remote work, hobbies, and hanging out together. In the old days, families gathered into a large horizontal kitchen space to be together. We now interconnect vertically with each other and with the surrounding nature. In this time and age with effective telecommunications and speed trains to the metropolitan region, this is a paradise for us to get settled into the good life.”

The post Meteorite is a Mysterious 3-Story Black Cabin in the Forests of Finland first appeared on Dornob.

The basis of CeCuCo is an open triangular module with a wood frame measuring three meters on each side, which can be combined into all kinds of geometric shapes. This module can be filled in with glass, clay bricks, wood, or whatever other materials are available locally and best suited to the project, climate, and architectural surroundings. That means the doors and windows will generally be triangular in shape, also, opening in different directions or pushed out like a brise-soleil to allow cross-ventilation and natural cooling, which lowers energy consumption.

The cultural center is an example of what can be done with this modular system. The architecture firm wanted to demonstrate how individual rooms can be designed for multiple open-ended functions to make the overall complex as inclusive as possible. “How do you design a space that works in the same way for children who meet to play, adults to watch an exhibition, teenagers to listen to a concert?” *noa says. “What are the characteristics of a meeting space that is open all year round, that is not for consumption, and that represents the public counterbalance to the private domestic dimension?”

The answer is six different types of floor plans ranging from eight to 115 square meters (about 85 to 1240 square feet) that can be mixed and matched for all possible activities. As examples, the architects cite a small module as an artist’s atelier, a newspaper stall, a storeroom, and a staircase, while the extra small module can be a ticket office. The medium module could house bathrooms, a library, and open-air bleachers. The largest size is designed with theater and cinema in mind, but again, that’s flexible.

The design also includes green roofs, pergolas, photovoltaic power systems, rainwater collecting systems, ponds, wooded areas, and other ways to modulate the local climate. Here, they’re shown with flat roofs, but one can imagine how new faceted planes could be created by connecting the triangular modules at different angles into three-dimensional shapes, which would be better suited to environments that get a lot of rain.

“This cultural center could be located on a beach on a volcanic island, in the Scandinavian forests, on an abandoned lot in Detroit, or on the roofs of socialist housing in Berlin,” *noa says. “It is an architecture able to mold itself to the morphological and climatic requirements of the context while maintaining intact the concept of sociality and interaction between the building and those who live in it.”

The post Noa’s Flexible Modular Building System Can Adapt to Any Use and Location first appeared on Dornob.

This portable modern cabin is based on the firm’s RCA-03 design, available in either 225 or 375-square-foot versions. Manufactured off-site and capable of being assembled within just four weeks, the fully furnished cabin consists of a system of both fixed and flexible elements. The layout of each cabin is the same, with a bathroom, kitchenette, and living space with built-in storage, but elements like lighting, fixtures, and material finishes can be customized.

The A24 itself is a 225-square-foot RCA-03 cabin tucked into a lush hillside on a coffee plantation in Bettagere Estate, Coorg, India as part of an upcoming resort called Betta Living. Clients Sunny Watwani and Adithya Roongta dreamed of building a series of cabins near their home city of Chennai, but didn’t want to go the usual route of building a resource-intensive, environment-disrupting vacation home. “There’s little or no regard for the surrounding nature,” Watwani told Architectural Digest. “People have blocked natural streams, cut down trees, and damaged the local biodiversity.”

Watwani and Roongta were adamant that not a single tree be cut down to accommodate the cabin, which was initially conceptualized by SPASM Design Architects with design development and execution completed by DDAA. As a result, the cabin sits lightly on the carefully chosen site, supported by four adjustable legs. The reflective glass and ACP metal siding panels help it blend into its environment, but the cabin feels thoroughly contemporary thanks to its sleek materials and jewel-like silhouette.

Inside, it offers guests a full bathroom with a shower, wardrobe, queen-size bed, and kitchenette foyer. Service equipment like the condenser unit is hidden behind the bathroom block. Walnut wood flooring, matte finish interior cladding, glowing amber pendant lights, and bespoke furniture give it a refined yet cozy atmosphere with incredible views of the surrounding mountain range.

“While the initial concept for A24 was designed by Spasm, DDAA worked to develop the design and prefabricate it in record time,” say the architects. “Every corner in the cabin strives to visually if not spatially connect with the natural context, be it the bathroom which comes furnished with all the modern amenities, or the kitchenette in the living space that captures stunning views of the valley.”

“The cabin’s most prominent features are its large, open facades that frame gorgeous views of the natural beauty outside. The 225-square-foot interior space reflects a minimal abode prioritized for comfort and design. A coherent design language resonates with all other cabins as well, and is perfect for sites located in the woods, the mountains, or along the shore.”

The post Off-Grid Living Gets Luxurious in This Tiny Modern Cabin by DDAA first appeared on Dornob.

So when a Colorado company debuted “Stackhouse,” a housing project consisting of stacked metal shipping containers, the comparisons were inevitable. In r/ABoringDystopia on Reddit, one user asks, “Why can’t we have normal ‘affordable’ housing instead of living in shipping containers and other things the capitalist class can no longer use?”

It’s a fair question. People around the world were already adapting shipping containers into makeshift housing out of pure necessity before this type of “upcycled” architecture was a trend. It’s true that once shipping containers are no longer usable for the transportation of goods, they can make a convenient module for experimental structures, and modular architecture is often more sustainable than conventional construction. But the truth is, shipping containers aren’t actually all that great to live in for a variety of reasons.

Set to open its doors in August 2022, Stackhouse professes to be “the first company to build vertical infrastructure for moveable containers,” as co-founder and CEO Janelle Briggs told Denverite. The idea is you can buy a unit in one city and then transport the whole thing somewhere else when you feel like moving. Meanwhile, stacking the units takes up less valuable real estate in desirable cities, adding to the availability of affordable housing.

But, as Reddit pointed out, the problem lies in how we define “affordable,” and the quality level we’re willing to accept for the price. Stackhouse is presented as housing the average person should actually want, with 320 square feet of living space within a 40-foot shipping container. Laid out either as a studio or one bedroom, each unit has a full kitchen, solar panels, and a bathroom with a tub. The units will be stacked eight stories high with 62 total slots. While the prices for the containers themselves range from $110,000 to $130,000, the actual price of occupying a “slot” brings the price up to as much as $350,000.

That’s a lot of money to live in a metal box measuring less than eight feet wide inside. By comparison, the median closing price for an attached residential home in Denver was $375,000 in August. In more expensive cities like Seattle or San Francisco, good luck finding so much as a shanty for less than half a million dollars. When these are our options for so-called affordable housing, who wins? (The developers, who are the ones lobbying your state senators to prevent the construction of actual affordable housing, of course).

Sure, there are people who are going to be happy to live in this shipping container complex. But it’s a slippery slope. Both rent and real estate prices are skyrocketing all over the world, and the choices we’re presented with seem to keep getting smaller and lower quality at the same time. Choosing to limit your possessions and live in a tiny home is one thing. Being forced into substandard housing because it’s all you can afford is another. The idea to reuse shipping containers as housing was well-intended, but it’s time to move onto more humane solutions.

The post Real-Life “Ready Player One”: $300K Shipping Container Homes in Colorado first appeared on Dornob.

The 355-square-foot “Cabana” was commissioned by a Brazilian steel company to highlight the adaptability of its product at Casa Cor 2021, the country’s annual interior and exterior design showcase. The project parameters required that the dwelling should be lightweight, easy to transport, and provide minimal interference with the surrounding environment.

Lead architect Barbara Fonseca created a two-story structure that includes an entire wall of windows to capitalize on the area’s picturesque nature views. The asymmetrical house is also compact and efficient. The entryway opens onto the living area, complete with an energy-saving wood burning stove. Directly behind the seating area is a small wall of kitchen cabinets including a built-in sink, two-burner stove, and small refrigerator.

To the left of the kitchenette is a ladder that leads to the upper level. Around the other side is the bathroom, which incorporates two showerheads mounted on the ceiling and a composting toilet. Bringing the outside in, an indoor botanical garden bed placed adjacent to the shower allows green plants to recycle some of the residents’ carbon dioxide emissions.

A single bedroom with room for a queen-size platform bed comprises the entire second floor. The warm, wooden walls here are broken up by two oversize windows to allow plenty of sunlight and fresh air in.

To keep the environmental impact low, Liga Arquitetura e Urbanismo chose to utilize steel beams, cements slabs with steel pile foundations, and reforested wood as their primary building materials. Rock wool was also incorporated in the walls and ceiling, itself a very effective stone-based insulation made from Basalt rock and recycled steel slag.

The construction plans call for the use of steel screws to join all the parts, preventing extra air pollution from the by-products of welding and drawing attention to another one of the versatile metal’s many benefits.

“With the cabin project we hope to introduce people to a new way of life: more modern, practical, and simple. And to show that steel is accessible for all types of buildings,” said Ascanio Merrighi, director of Soluções Usiminas, one of the largest steel companies in the western hemisphere and the sponsor for the Cabana design.

The tidy cabin also includes LED strip lighting and strategically-placed windows for maximum cross-ventilation. “All these actions aim to reduce the need to use air conditioning systems, improve performance in the use of artificial lighting, and consequently minimize the consumption of electricity,” the architects note.

The whole structure is made up of modules that are light enough for just two people to transport, making cranes and other construction vehicles unnecessary. Plus, all the pieces can fit simultaneously into one box truck, reducing the cost and carbon emissions required to get the materials on site.

Liga Arquitetura e Urbanismo is based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and was founded in 2015 with the aim of designing buildings that “transform information into matter.” The company has since gone on to produce many sleek and modern structures for both small and large commercial clients.

The post Cabana: A Tiny House That Can Be Carried and Constructed by Just Two People first appeared on Dornob.

Needless to say, Musk’s announcement has generated a lot of interest in this 400-square-foot abode. Luckily, Boxabl offers a virtual tour of the Casita, as well as a video showing off just how quickly it can be to set up. Within its 20-by-20 footprint is a layout similar to that of a studio apartment, featuring a full size kitchen with a double sink, oven, dishwasher, large refrigerator, and Shaker cabinetry, a bathroom with a deep shower or tub and a sliding barn door, and a generously sized living room with 9’6”-high ceilings. A storage cabinet separates the living area from the open bedroom.

Musk’s Casita, which has reportedly received an upgrade package putting its total cost a few thousand dollars over the list price of $49,500, is set to be the first of many produced by Boxabl. The company’s new headquarters in Las Vegas will soon be producing the units en masse for shipment all over the United States. While many other technology-focused housing companies see 3D printing as the wave of the future, Boxabl’s design uses factory-built modular components that can be flattened into an ultra-compact package for shipment on existing tractor-trailers. Another huge benefit of this model is affordability. Boxabl’s founders aim to help significantly lower the cost of homeownership for all, though of course, you still need land and utility hookups. Still, the Casita costs significantly less than the average manufactured home, and, in fact, less than a Tesla.

Located in Boca Chica, Texas, Musk’s new home is on “Starbase,” the new SpaceX rocket-building facility he hopes will one day become a city in its own right. Set on remote mudflats at the state’s southern tip, Starbase has become a point of contention for locals and bird lovers due to its bright lights, noise, and proximity to sensitive nesting areas for migratory shorebirds like plovers and red knots.

The homes Musk offloaded in California include a mansion on Chalon Road, which he sold for $29 million in June 2020; a home that once belonged to Willy Wonka actor Gene Wilder, which he sold for $7 million with the stipulation that it “cannot be torn down or lose any [of] its soul”; four Bel Air properties worth a combined $61.89 million; and a 47-acre compound in Hillsborough with a century-old mansion. Musk, whose net worth is estimated around $169.8 billion, isn’t exactly taking a vow of poverty here. He’s just freeing up assets to put them toward SpaceX and its mission to revolutionize space technology.

The post Elon Musk Sold His Mansions to Live in This $50,000 Tiny Home in Texas first appeared on Dornob.