“If we can’t go outdoors, why can’t the outdoors come to us?” It sounds like the kind of question a five-year-old would ask, but dwell a little on that thought and you start realizing it’s quite an intriguing question. In fact, it’s the design brief for ODA’s latest tower designs. These tower designs from ODA Architecture try to blur the boundaries between the outdoors and indoors… they were originally conceived as a way to alter New York’s predominantly glass-and-metal skyline by introducing an aspect of greenery into it, but in a world dealing with COVID-19, they provide a much more important service by allowing us to experience the outdoors without needing to step out.
ODA’s explorations primarily focus on tower designs, in an attempt to bring versatility and a touch of greenery to NY’s overtly boxy and shiny cityscape. Architectural explorations look at residential units with dedicated ‘greenery zones’ that act as areas of social congregation for the building’s residents. Adorned with curvilinear, organic architecture, and interspersed with greenery, these areas give the residents a break from the concrete-jungle-aesthetic of the skyscraper-filled city. They act as areas of reflection and of allowing people to connect with nature and with one another. Designed specifically for the building’s residents, these ‘shared indoor gardens’ even serve as wellness areas, giving people spaces to exercise, meditate, do yoga, and just take a break from being stuck at home… all while being safely within the confines of your building!
Designer: ODA New York
Modular Cabin + Architecture Designs that expand according to your living as well as working needs!
Modular architecture is officially on the rise! They give us the freedom and ability to create a home, office, or even a holiday cabin according to our needs and wants. Customizing or putting together a space exactly the way we want isn’t a far-off dream anymore. Your dream home or dream cabin retreat is now a reality with these amazing modular architectural designs. From a prefab modular tiny home that expands as you need, to a modular dome that can function as a greenhouse or tiny home – this collection of modular architectural designs can be anything you want them to be! The possibilities are endless.
Woonpioniers, an Amsterdam-based architecture, and design studio has created Indigo , a modular building system that designs homes to replicate one of your dreams. Depending on the home you’d like to build with Woonpioniers, Indigo’s structure and shape may vary. Recently, Lia Harmsen collaborated with Woonpioniers to design her live-in workspace for sculpting. The finished custom two-floor home measures 861-square-feet and features fixed-end moment building practices that produce a beautiful, curved interior leading from the wall to the ceiling. The fixed-end moment frame of the home offers an open-air floor plan, giving complete access for the building’s interior layout to take shape, leaving behind the spatial restriction of support beams and partitions.
Casa Ojalá has been constructed with carefully selected timbers, fabrics made from recycled plastic, and handmade ceramics. It also has integrated photovoltaic panels, a rainwater recovery system, and a black water depuration advanced biological plant – all of which allow it to be set up even in the most remote locations. Each cabin will source local materials and therefore no destination will have the same casa but each will be woven with the roots of the land creating infinite possibilities within the same floor area anywhere in the world.
Dubbed Micro Home , UOOU Studio developed the tiny home to be anything from a weekend retreat to a remote office space. Micro Home’s versatility comes through with its convertible roof that incorporates sliding awnings to open and close throughout the day as needed. This means that space can transform throughout the day from a sunbathing bungalow to a sheltered home office. Micro Home is constructed off-site with sustainable building materials like wood and OSB paneling, leaving a low carbon footprint and making it lightweight for easy shipping and handling. After it’s been positioned into place, Micro Home’s roof is tiled with solar panels to generate the home with power. While the building material and solar panels outfit each individual Micro Home, UOOU Studio made it so that owners can customize the interior and overall shape of their Micro Home.
Plant Prefab, a California-based architecture firm that prefabricates sustainable homes, recently collaborated with Koto, a UK-based studio that designs modular homes, to build two residences called LivingHomes . Devised to meet both LEED Platinum and net-zero standards, the homes were also designed and built on some Scandinavian design principles: minimalism and biophilia. Biophilia is the hypothetical human tendency to interact with nature. Biophilic design, which could be inherently minimalist, interprets that human tendency for both interior and exterior spaces, producing a design concept used to increase the connectivity between a building’s residents and the natural world. In order to meet sustainability standards that match Plant Prefab’s mission statement, Koto looked toward Scandinavian design standards.
This cluster of prefab cabins is located in a Slovakian forest for Hotel Björnson but can also be stand-alone homes. The minimalist shelters have a Scandinavian aesthetic and give you an eco-friendly getaway with minimal environmental impact. Ark Shelter has also won a Cezaar award in the category Architectural Fenomena – a recognition for the most exceptional architectural achievements of the year. The modern retreat is made of 11 cabins and four wellness units that include saunas and relaxation rooms. The shelters are built in one piece, which gives the incredible mobility to reach your dream location. Every cabin rests on stilts to minimize site impact and has been carefully placed in between the trees to give you maximum privacy and maximum views!
Úbáli , which means chameleon in Bribri, designed their first modular cabin, called Kabëk, specifically to befit mountain living. The first model for the Úbáli Tropical Living’s eco-tourism initiative dons an inclined roof, which allows the modular house to tuck right into mountainous terrains and offers travelers the chance to fully immerse themselves and their stays in the quiet of the wood. The modular cabin has a simple design layout of four walls that enclose a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom, and dining room. The construction process also promotes frugality in regard to both time and money in that its modularity and simple layout caters to the prospect of easy and relatively affordable replication.
Amsterdam-based architecture firm GG-loop collaborated with Arup to design a modular building system that focuses on regenerative sustainable living and urban development. Created with biophilic principles and parametric design tools, the hypnotizing prefab timber modules we see will be optimized to be flexible and scalable. This will let the building continue expansion with time in several different urban settings while accommodating the changing times which often results in changing needs. The ability to expand the structural hub is where the building gets its name from. Mitosis can be used for a wide range right from creating communities with off-grid, single-family homes to high-density, mixed-use zones in cities. GG-loop’s pilot project Freebooter was the foundation for Mitosis and is in itself an award-winning pair of prefabricated, cross-laminated timber apartments that were completed last year in Amsterdam.
Treehouses inherently exude an air of myth and adventure. When stationed either in dense jungles as a natural hub to study wildlife or placed in a suburban backyard for kids, the treehouse is the place where the escapist can let their hair down. Take the treehouse and tuck it next to an old French castle in the countryside and it’s something straight from the storybooks. Forma Atelier, a Mexico-based architecture firm, turned that storybook setting into reality with their modular treehouse concept that cleverly combines razor-sharp triangular roofs with sweeping glass window panes to share the rural hills with that of an old French château.
Think of Ekodome as the grown-up version of building forts with bedsheets and pillows. Just like your fort could be anything you imagined from a storefront to a palace, these geometric domes are also designed to be anything from tiny homes to greenhouses! The modular design of these geodesic dome kits gives you endless possibilities and I, for one, would love to convert it into a creative home office. Ekodome is a New York City-based company and they have many different models and sizes for you to choose from. The base concept is simple, it involves an aluminum frame that you can easily assemble DIY-style. The dome is crafted from high-quality and durable materials so that it is more than a temporary shelter while still retaining its modular, scalable, and lightweight nature. Your kit will come with the aluminum hub and hub caps with an EPDM seal on.
In creating HOM3 , which stands for ‘Home Office Module Cubed,’ the designers at JaK Studio felt inspired by the home-building system featured in Minecraft– the best part of playing video games. To build your own multifunctional HOM3 cabin, JaK Studio is currently working with game designers from AI Interactive to make the process of creating the floor plan feel and look very similar to the process of building your Minecraft home. HOM3 essentially turns the virtual home design process of Minecraft into reality. Speaking to this, founding partner of JaK Studio, Jacob Low says, “During [the] lockdown, our team became fascinated by the principles of games such as Minecraft which allow people to transform and customize their environments, and we began experimenting with the idea of customizable, modular micro-architecture. HOM3 transports what we found in the gaming world to the physical space, offering a really unique design solution for modern living.”
Bring your backyard to life this summer with these products designed to help you unwind!
Summer is around the corner, and it’s almost time to beat the heat! Add COVID-19 to the mix, and our options for summer activities are really quite limited this time around. However, why don’t we turn inwards, instead of turning outwards as always?! A great option could be using our humble backyards as recreation spaces! How about turning your backyard into an ideal date spot for you and your partner, or hosting a barbecue party with the best grill in the market? We’ve curated a collection of product designs to help you transform these exciting ideas into a reality! These products will turn your yard into the ultimate summer destination. We bet you won’t want to step out of your yard, once you introduce these products to it!
You don’t have to be an architect to want to build a bamboo structure of your own thank to the ‘Zome building kit’ by Giant Grass! The studio has made a DIY kit that is basically a larger-than-life LEGO project which can live in your backyard or be scaled up to create a community space. The ‘zome’ is a flexible space that can be used by children to hang out in the backyard, like a gazebo for you to entertain guests in, a greenhouse for seedlings, a creative space in the office, a quiet space for yoga at home, or a glamping tent – it can be anything you want it to be. This DIY kit is perfect for those who want to live sustainability and enjoy working on projects which result in a productive reward.
Parsonson Architects created the Herald Garden Studio – a functional, flexible, freestanding 183-square-foot structure that sits in your backyard to accommodate all those growing pains! The studio includes office space, a bathroom, storage space at the rear, a play area, and a guest bed in the loft up the ladder. The loft is a cozy private corner and has a net panel in front for safety for children/pets. The studio has a number of windows on the upper level to let in natural light. Wooden beams set in a triangular arrangement make the structural framework and to keep the costs low the walls are clad with zero-formaldehyde oriented strand board (OSB).
Gravity Series 800 Griddle follows Masterbuilt’s Gravity Series 560 and Gravity Series 1050. Its design and construction are pretty similar to its predecessors though it has been meticulously engineered to make outdoor cooking simpler by giving the controls in your hands. Yes, the searing temperatures and slow-low cooking on the new grill + griddle can be controlled from the convenience of your smartphone, which syncs via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. In addition to controlling the cooking temperature, you can also monitor cook time from the app, while the integrated fan maintains the heat based on your desired setting.
The Sling Hanging Swing Chair by Studio Stirling is perfect to lounge upon on those lazy Sunday afternoons! The beautiful hanging chair is handmade and exhibits unique craftsmanship. Not only will it add comfort, but also a quotient of style to your otherwise mundane backyard!
In the mood for a romantic dinner for two? Look no further! Because you can now experience this in your own backyard with the Landscape Frame! Designed by Bergmeisterwolf Architects , this two-square-meter bench with an attached table is made of Swiss pine and is the perfect addition to your backyard to create an intimate and cozy spot!
The Cocoon Spherical Tree Bed is literally something out of a fairytale setting! The tent remains suspended above ground because let’s face it, how will a spherical tent remain upright on the floor? The tent comes with a huge 3-meter diameter and holds a double bed, living up to the glamping quotient of the evening. The design is made of an aluminum frame and comes with a waterproof layer to ensure the rain won’t come in and dampen your plans! It’s the perfect cozy little addition to your backyard!
The Wooden Outdoor Shower by WoodMaster honestly has me going gaga! This little outdoor shower is a personal relaxation space with privacy, of course. Pop in for a cool shower on those unusually hot and pesky summer days!
Cellars have been used across the ages to store food or even act like bunker houses in case of natural disasters. Groundfridge takes that design one step further by adding fresh food refrigeration to the game. The trick used by Groundfridge is by utilizing the natural insulating capacity of the ground and the cooler night air temperatures. The balance of this design allows you to store your vegetables, fruits, cheese, and even wine throughout the year. Ventilating this project uses a fan with a timer that replenishes the cool air during the night. Here’s a sustainable underground fridge for your backyard!
I want this Hanging Lounger by KODAMA in my own backyard ASAP. It’s a comfy nook to snuggle in with your favorite book or to simply take a power nap in the afternoon. You can also spend some quality time with your friends, family, and pets in the lounger.
The Faz Pot by Ramón Esteve is not only a good and functional planter but also a quirky and geometrically fascinating product that promises to jazz up your boring old backyard. Replace the conventional planters in your backyard with intriguing designs like these!
