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Architectural designer Caspar Schols has created a modular cabin at the De Biesbosch National Park in the Netherlands, incorporating sliding walls that allow it to be opened up to the elements.
It is the latest iteration of the flatpack Cabin Anna model, which Schols first developed in 2016 as a prototype garden room for his mother, next to a pond at her Eindhoven home.
Following the success of the original design, it was developed into a series of commercially available flatpack cabin structures that could be used as dwellings and workspaces.
The cabin in De Biesbosch National Park has been configured for use as a small home, with ground floor and mezzanine sleeping areas, a bathroom with an in-floor tub, an outdoor shower and a kitchen.
As with previous versions of the Cabin Anna, the latest iteration combines gabled sections of wood, metal and glass that are mounted on sliders.
The sliders are built into a wooden platform and allow the cabin’s form to be reconfigured, mediating the connection to the outdoors.
“In wintertime, Anna’s insulated wooden shell keeps the warmth inside like a thick winter coat,” said Schols.
“In spring or autumn, the glass keeps the rain outside or lets the sun in to warm up the space,” he continued. “If it warms you up too much, you can either slide and close the wooden layer to block the warming sun or slide the glass layer open to let a cool wind enter.”
Cabin Anna forms part of a wider series called the Anna Collection, which is limited to ten structures for which Schols will personally supervise the construction.
The sliders are all manually operated, which the designer sees as being integral to the cabin’s concept of giving its residents a feeling of closeness to their surroundings.
“We don’t offer an electronic opening version of Anna, using your own muscle power is essential,” he explained. “Your whole body is involved in opening up the whole cabin.”
“Propelled by your body, the cabin prepares the brain to open up and connect to the natural environment,” he added.
The cabins are designed to be flexible to suit a range of uses, ranging from dwellings to meditation spaces or artist’s studios.
Alongside Anna Collection, Schols has also been developing Anna One, a series of cabins due to launch in 2024 that buyers will be able to assemble themselves.
Other cabins recently featured on Dezeen include the stilted Kjerringholmen dwelling on a small private island in Norway and the angular Straw Flea House in a historic village in Austria.
The photography is courtesy of Caspar Schols.
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