Witzling’s very first cabin, erected on a friend’s property, cost just $800 to build. With an experimental approach to building and no fear of taking risks, Witzling came up with ever more ornate designs. One 80-square-foot cabin made of salvaged lumber features an undulating cedar shake roof. Elsewhere, a tiny camper built into the back of a pickup truck boasts complex angles, skylights, and a lofted bed inside. A 200-square-foot diamond-shaped cabin on the couple’s land, with its pointed roof stretching toward the sky, might be one of the coolest things you’ll ever see in the woods. But nothing tops the Castle Cabin, a series of connected two-story structures measuring a total of 900 square feet.

The crown jewel of Cabinland took 18 months to build, with Witzling, Underwood, and some friends and family members doing most of the work themselves. Triangular dormers, one of Witzling’s signature elements, poke out of each mossy roof, while the walls are covered in cedar shingles. Short walkways connect each volume to the next, and a private courtyard is tucked away in the center. As you’d imagine, the complex geometries of the rooflines create some seriously gorgeous interior ceilings.

Prior to building the Castle Cabin, Witzling and Underwood occupied a series of other cabins on the property, sleeping in one and using another as a freestanding closet and dressing room. Now, the Castle functions as their private home. Details include doors made of red alder, railing made from salvaged red cedar that was once the subfloor of a collapsed shanty on the property, and all the stunning wood grain you could ever ask for on every interior surface. The couple shared their design and building process on YouTube, and it’s a fun watch.

“We’re so happy to finally be sharing our newest creation with you!” The duo writes on the Cabinland Instagram. “The Castle Cabin is our forever home and has been a sanctuary to us. It took us 18 months to construct from start to finish and there are so many people who helped along the way that we can’t possibly list them all here… thank you for your patience everyone as we waited for just the right time to unveil our work to you. We’ve already started working on more projects here in the rainforest as well as Cabinland 2.0 in the desert of the Southwest and we look forward to sharing everything with you.”

If you’re in love with these fairytale creations, there are lots more photos and videos to be found on Instagram, many of which prominently feature Underwood (model and former Playboy Playmate of the Year). You’re also going to want to check out their dreamy handmade wood-fired hot tub.

The post Handmade “Castle Cabin” Brings Fairytale Vibes to the Pacific Northwest first appeared on Dornob.

The original center, designed by Sierra Cardona & Ferrer and located within the northeastern Río Grande municipality, opened in 1996. Over 30 years later, it was looking a little worse for wear, even before the Category 5 hurricane touched down. Marvel won a competition to redesign the facility with sustainability in mind, implementing features like solar power, rainwater harvesting, passive ventilation, and other strategies to meet LEED Silver certification. Reconstruction began in 2019 and was completed in late 2021.

“Our challenge for this project was to envision a refreshed design that would respect and harmonize with the beautiful natural surroundings of El Yunque, integrate environmental sustainability factors, and build upon the previous structure,” explained Marvel in a statement. “El Portal is an integral part of one of Puerto Rico’s biggest tourist attractions and, as such, it is an iconic destination. Playing a role in assuring its longevity and ability to remain accessible to both residents and visitors, all while preserving this fragile natural ecosystem in perpetuity, was critical in our decision to take on this project.”

Marvel modified elements of the original El Portal facility, including the main visitor hall and upper courtyard, while adding a new entry plaza, gardens, interpretive exhibits by Split Rock Studios, and a café with a commercial kitchen. Mahogany trees that came crashing down in the storm were transformed into new furniture and signage, and works by local artists were brought in to add color and character.

The studio also designed a new wheelchair-accessible trail for the El Yunque rainforest, which is home to over 200 species of plants as well as petroglyphs made by the indigenous Taíno people. Thankfully, the forest itself is rebounding from the damage it experienced in the storm, and the newly redesigned El Portal Visitor’s Center will serve as a beautiful reintroduction to its wonders. The rebuilding process has also included studies by climate scientists and ecologists that will help predict how similar ecosystems could change in the face of severe weather in the future.

El Portal is one of many recent post-hurricane rebuilding projects completed by Marvel, including the creation of new solar power hubs throughout the country. Founder Jonathon Marvel, who was born in Puerto Rico, is one of the founders of Resilient Power Puerto Rico, a nonprofit that aims to reduce reliance on the the island nation’s vulnerable electrical grid through the use of renewable energy.

“Marvel seeks to promote initiatives and tackle construction projects that favor sustainability and resilience,” says Edna Echandi Guzmán, AIA, Director of Marvel’s Puerto Rico office. “The renovation of El Portal exemplifies our philosophy, and we are proud to be a part of this historic and significant project for Puerto Rico.”

The post Damaged by Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s El Portal Visitor Center Gets a Gorgeous Refresh first appeared on Dornob.

The Warka village lies in a place with no roads and little communication with the outside world. Due to frequent flooding, the territory can be totally inaccessible during the rainy seasons. The innovative new micro-town incorporates several features to support the life and livelihood of the Pygmy culture all year round.

Two Warka Towers provide an alternative source of drinking water for residents by gathering moisture from rain, fog, and dew. “It is a passive structure, it functions only by natural phenomena such as gravity, condensation, and evaporation,” the company website explains. Built from 100-percent recyclable and biodegradable components, the towers should yield between 10 and 20 gallons of potable water each day, depending on atmospheric conditions.

“Warka tower is demonstrating that we can harvest water from the sky, so water doesn’t only come from the ground,” Vittori says. “This not a new invention but an ancient knowhow that we have lost. Looking back, several cultures have been adopting different strategies to collect water in a sustainable way from the air. Warka will also help to rediscover some of these lost traditions, inspiring a new generation of architects to incorporate these techniques in contemporary design.”

The community housing was inspired by ancestral African huts and assembled with native Cameroonian construction methods, employing only locally-sourced wood, bricks, and fibers. Even better, the new dwellings improve upon tradition by adding insulated floors, natural ventilation, and rain-proof roofs.

Before the erection of the Warka village, there were no toilets in the Mvoumagomi range and disease could easily spread through unhygienic practices. Now, compost latrines have been set up to support better sanitation and furnish sustenance for the environment. The liquid human waste is diluted for natural fertilizer, while the solid waste is mixed with soil and dried to create nutrient-rich manure for the Warka garden.

The town’s modular garden is devised to feed the Pygmy people and supply crops to be sold at local markets. It utilizes an efficient irrigation system that pulls water straight from the Warka towers.

Warka Water Inc. got its start after Vittori traveled to the rural high plateau of Ethiopia in February 2012. “I witnessed a dramatic reality: the lack of potable water,” Vittori explains. “…To survive here, women and children walk every day for miles towards shallow and unprotected ponds, where the water is often contaminated with human and animal waste, parasites, and diseases. They collect the water using dry carved gourds and carry the water back in old plastic containers, which are extremely heavy… I made it my mission to find an alternative solution and help these people. This was the genesis of the design of warka tower: an environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable solution for potable water.”

The Cameroonian Warka Village is already operational, with an anticipated completion date of 2022. Warka Water has also finished another community in Ethiopia and has plans for sites in Haiti, Togo, and Colombia.

The post Sustainable Cameroonian Village Harvests Water from the Sky first appeared on Dornob.

But with the opening of Willmott’s Ghost, a new Italian eatery, anyone can pop in for an hour or two, any day of the week. You won’t get to tour the famous greenery or the five levels of botanical workspaces, but you can dine on Roman-style pizzas, fried gnocchi, clams, and tiramisu in a small section of one of the domes.

The latest establishment from esteemed restauranteur Renee Erickson, Willmott’s Ghost offers about 50 seats in a jewel box of a space decked out in an appetizingly crisp palette of materials and colors, including palest pink, mint, deep marine blue-green, white Carrera marble, and metallic gold. Accessed through its own subtly marked entrance, the café is just as beautifully lit as you’d expect, especially given its unique location within the domes.

You’ll find no Italian stereotypes here, nor an overabundance of midcentury modern nostalgia. Vertical lines draw the eye up toward the glass, with crescent moon booths and globe-shaped lamps giving the space a little extra sparkle.

While the Spheres were created by architecture firm NBBJ, Willmott’s Ghost is the work of Seattle-based Heliotrope Architects, who liken the experience to “building a ship in a bottle.” They add: “The design team drew inspiration from the unique geometry of the [spheres] and the bright, airy environments of modern art museums and galleries.”

“Enclosed within a spherical envelope, the area housing the restaurant proved an incredible — and inspiring — challenge, as much of the architecture is dictated by curves. Curved leather banquettes and booths hug the glass perimeter. Curved walls clad in painted wood pickets define the dining room, and curved bars with Italian marble tops organize the space.”

“Avoiding the tropes of Italian restaurant aesthetics, the architecture and design evoke classical themes written in a contemporary language. Willmott’s Ghost takes its name from the thistle-like flower christened in honor of Victorian horticulturalist Ellen Ann Willmott.”

The menu celebrates Italian cuisine at its best: when it’s simple enough for its star ingredients to shine. Rustic rectangles of pizzas are adorned with seasonal toppings. Plates of thinly-sliced prosciutto and artisanal cheeses are drizzled in Sapori olive oil. Local specialities like Coho salmon are accented by aromatic herbs and citrus. Get a reservation if you want a table, or walk in and sit at the bar.

If you want to see more of the Spheres, just be sure to time your trip to coincide with the first or third Saturday of the month to enjoy a free “open house” tour. Make a reservation first, though, as slots are limited and fill up quickly.

The post Willmott’s Ghost: A Chic Café Inside the Amazon Spheres first appeared on Dornob.

Before a moon is created for a desert landscape or an abandoned house is turned into a haunted maze, scenographers must pay close attention to context. This is because there are often characteristics about a particular place or space that can be used to heighten the realism of the theatrical experience. This cinematic display is achieved using multimedia technologies and strategies, including audiovisual systems, visual effects, motion design, animation, and ambient lighting.

Consider the nighttime experience that is Rainforest Lumina at the Singapore Zoo, an installation that has been hailed as “a multimedia night walk on the wild side.” It was created by Moment Factory, a Montreal-based multimedia studio known for its vivid concert stage designs for Arcade Fire, Madonna, Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, Nine Inch Nails, Bon Jovi, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a slew of half-time shows, all-star games, and championship matches. Rainforest Lumina marks their most recent work, and it is undoubtedly one of a kind.

What are the animals doing when the crowds go home? Rainforest Lumina wants to answer that burning question, which has intrigued spectators young and old for practically as long as zoos have been around. Visitors might not catch a glimpse of any of the animals or see them scurrying away behind the trees, but there’s a good chance they’ll hear them. Beneath the lights and through the mist, virtual characters inserted into the landscape set the stage for an interactive spectacle involving nature. Whereas other zoos that are open after dark shine bright lights into the faces of real animals who are trying to sleep, the Singapore Zoo uses light in a much more controlled and sensitive way.

So what exactly is the role of these virtual characters? They are acting out an adventure in which the spectator is also part of the act, protecting the rainforest and watching over the animals by night. The “stage” in this case is the entire zoo, with visitors taking a circuitous route through the forest to take in everything that the installation has to offer. The rock shelves and streams where the animals frolic during the day have also been turned into canvases for the nighttime show.

Before this interactive spectacle became a reality, it was meticulously sketched and drawn out. From there, mock-ups of the zoo’s landscape were made to see how the show would work. As with any theatrical act, there needed to be a story in place — except this story would have to do more than just entertain. It also had to draw the visitors into the natural landscape of the zoo and carry them right through it. Every part of the adventure is as scripted as the actors in an actual play, with just enough spontaneity left in for families with young kids to have fun, too.

The post How Scenography Turned a Zoo into a Cinematic Experience first appeared on Dornob.

Set among Seattle’s sprawl of office towers, these NBBJ-designed globes look like conjoined greenhouses from the outside, and that’s actually not far from the truth. Inside, more than 40,000 plants representing 400 species cover virtually every surface. Stone paths meander among waterfalls, taking visitors on a tour of the gardens. The domes boast two living walls, palm trees, tropical shrubs with enormous leaves, an 18-ton ficus named Rubi, and a 40-foot-tall fern.

The gardens are divided into two sections: the “New World,” which mostly houses plants from South and Central America, and the “Old World,” which features vegetation imported from Africa and Southeast Asia. A massive glass tank placed along the latter holds exotic living creatures and aquatic plants from the real Amazon rainforest. Horticulturists carefully curated the selection of plants to ensure that they could survive alongside the humans who would be working inside the domes every day. The spheres are kept at 72 degrees and 60 percent humidity during the day and 55 degrees and 85 percent humidity at night to mimic the rainforest’s natural conditions. A ventilation system provides the occasional breeze, gently swaying the branches of the trees.

Speaking of the spheres’ human occupants, check this out: among these five levels of botanical workspaces lies a treehouse meeting room with a bouncy bridge and a deck full of recliners like the ones you’d expect to find poolside at a resort. All of the workspaces are open and provide views of all the vegetation. That’s definitely a perk in a city that tends to be rainy and dreary for the bulk of the year.

As for the domes themselves, NBBJ lead architect John Savo says his firm took inspiration from the power of the sphere as it’s found in nature (i.e. the sun, the moon, and the human eye). While the repeating element in the average geodesic dome is usually easy to pick out, the one in The Spheres is slightly harder to distinguish. It’s shaped sort of like a stick figure with an elongated neck, holding out its arms and legs like Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man.” All in all, sixty of these modules come together to form a pentagonal hexecontahedron. The largest of the spheres is over 90 feet high and 130 feet in diameter.

“Our goal with the spheres was to create a unique gathering place where employees could collaborate and innovate together, and where the Seattle community could gather to experience biodiversity in the center of the city,” says John Schoettler, Amazon Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities. “I am very proud and thankful to the entire team who made the spheres a reality — they did a terrific job from the design all the way to the finishing touches. We are thrilled to officially open the doors.”

The post The Spheres: Amazon’s New Geodesic Offices Are a Rainforest Paradise first appeared on Dornob.

Some homes seem to simply spring organically from their surroundings rather than being placed there by the human hands of architects and builders.

The breathtaking Hilltop House on the edge of Thailand’s Kaoyai National Park is a home that seems more in tune with its environment than most.

Designed by the architects at Openbox Company Limited, the Hilltop House began with a rocky, richly forested landscape. Although the site is a very large 8000 square meters, the client asked only for a small, one-bedroom, 350 square meter house.

The spot chosen for the home was already occupied by two massive, beautiful ficus trees. There was also a large pile of rocks at the site which had lain abandoned for more than 40 years.

These existing elements became important parts of the final structure: the pile of stones was largely left untouched, with the house elevated above it. The ficus trees almost seem to support the home as they grow alongside the structure which seems to be part of the rainforest itself.

Some of the existing stone was used to build the walkway to the home, and a stacked concrete staircase was added to guide the resident and visitors to the entrance.

The home was built with an obvious reverence for nature. Even inside, gigantic windows and organic materials bring the outside in at every possible opportunity.

“As a trend setting architect, landscape and interior design company in Bangkok, we specialize in residential projects of all ranges.Our team design from Thailand modern house, Low-rise Thailand modern architecture to High-rise Residential in Thailand. Our strategies initiate with a little step by doing site analysis to know the feasibility of each project. With this method, every inch of the area shall be efficiently used no matter how restricted the clients’ requests are.”

“If you want to learn more about Thailand modern architecture, look no farther than Open Box (OPNBX) Architects. As a renowned and responsible architect firm in Thailand, we offer innovative and unique residential house designs for our customers. You can contact us for villa, apartment, flat and condominium designs of exceptional quality and appeal.”

“The tastes and preferences of people change with the emerging trends. Our professionals study all these trends and incorporate them into our designs to deliver a solution that surpasses the expectations of the customers. Our reputation as a modern architecture Thailand company stands second to none. We have been operating in this industry for more than 10 years with an impeccable track record.

The post Harmonic Rainforest House in Thailand first appeared on Dornob.

It might look like a contemporary and aloof initially, but this bold white-and-glass house takes a surprisingly delicate approach to its surroundings upon closer inspection … starting with the fact that the core steel structural frame and concrete foundation slab were already in place and long abandoned.

All displaced timber cleared prior to construction was reused within the home, while a combination of solar roof panels and rainwater recycling render it free of outside energy or well-water requirements.

Why would someone want to live in something so clean and pristine in such a rugged landscape? First, the views: large expanses of floor-to-ceiling windows engage the surroundings in a beautiful variety of ways. Cool tropical breezes naturally ventilate the home through slatted wood drop-down doors and operable glass elements, depending upon the space, creating air flow through the entire open-style plan.

Second, since the environment around it is visually dense (and arguably daunting for a city dweller), having the house feel more ‘civilized’ helps mitigate the sense that it is isolate and alone in hostile environs.

Finally, it should be noted that not everything is quite so elemental once you take a closer look; there are moments of softer and rougher materiality, from wooden stairs and accents to variegated brick walls.

In the end, it is actually somewhat surprising how well the border between man-made and natural worlds break on the site in architect-intended ways. SPG added an edgeless swimming pool, for example, which runs right up along the sides of a railing-free balcony. Patios at each level create plenty of space for lounging outdoors in the sunlight (or moonlight).

“In 2005, SPG Architects was approached by our client to re-consider the incomplete structure that he had previously erected on a remote Costa Rican coastal hillside. The all-but-abandoned steel framework and concrete slab construction was being reclaimed by the forest yet the prior investment in time, materials, and money was considerable. Although the structure was beautifully sited, it needed considerable re-thinking to become a viable and beautiful home.”

“As architects we were convinced that salvaging the existing structure was not only feasible but also the right thing to do, for both the client and the environment. The dual concerns of accommodating the needs of the client and preserving the natural landscape shaped the design and construction process from that point forward.”

The post Modern Rainforest Home in Costa Rica first appeared on Dornob.