An urban life almost always gives way to the yearning for an abode in seclusion. One is consistently engaged in the redundant tasks of availing buses on the behest of time, stealing glances at the figmental presence of nature, or straining one’s eyes to find stars in the night sky. The urban experience stipulates various exigencies and constraints under the garb of granting newfangled amenities. In a rush to obtain these provisions which are entrenched within chaotic pockets across the city, one ceases to experience tranquility. Hence, a far-fetched dream is born—one that sits in contrast with the daunting demands of an urban existence. Such yearnings often culminate in the visualisation of simple cottages and cabins seated in verdant landscapes or cupped in the lap of a hill, with clear streams (reflecting the azure sky) running alongside.

As part of our Best of 2023 curation, we enlist some remotely situated abodes from across the globe, to feed these latent desires with an image, and in the process, inspire, perhaps, a shift to a slower way of life.

1. Rever & Drage's Cabin Nordmarka

Rever & Drage, an architectural studio based in Oslo and Flekkefjord in Norway, designed Cabin Nordmarka, a minimalist structure situated amid the wilderness in Nordmarka. For the cabin design, Eirik Lilledrange, Martin Beverfjord, and Tom Auger of Rever & Drage drew cues from the tradition of building modest retreats in the outskirts of cities, meant for usage as temporary residences while hiking, hunting, or fishing. The studio shares, "Since the days of Thoreau's Walden, the small retreat, or bolthole, has also been a goal in itself. Typically to escape the stresses of everyday life. For the modern city dweller, this may well be a permanent urge." In citing one of the cabin's inspirations in the tradition of boltholes—a place meant for hiding and emergency escapes—the Norwegian studio also justifies its location in Nordmarka, which is a densely forested region in northern Oslo. Sitting snugly in the wilderness that surrounds the cabin, one can remain assured about their privacy and seclusion.

2. Ludwig Godefroy’s Casa Alférez

The Alférez house, designed by French architect Ludwig Godefroy, is a concrete structure defined by its raw visual language. It sits like a fortress, within a dense Alpine Forest, just outside Mexico City. Stationed between the middle of a pine tree grove, the 81 square metre structure stretches upward for a glimpse of the open sky through the verdant foliage. “I am really into the essentiality and rigour of raw materials and the quiet beauty of brutalist architecture. I like the designed atmosphere to be simple and monastic—it relaxes me. I tend to use only a few essential materials, massive in scale and size, but the idea is for these materials to age, and not get damaged with time, and acquire a natural patina that bears a cloak of maturity,” Godefroy, who is based in Mexico, shares. .

Based on the concept of a 'house as a vault,' Casa Alférez contrasts its brutalist, cubic volume with lofty, cathedral-like interiors. “The origin of the concept of Alférez house comes from the idea of a cabin in the woods and its romantic feeling of a protective shelter in the middle of the forest. I wanted the house to look like a cube which would have crashed on the floor, among the trees,” the architect explains. The interiors of the structure, while retaining the materiality of the exteriors, feature elements that augment the sensorial experience of the space. These include sloping walls, overhangs, angled staircases, elongated columns, very high ceilings, play with levels and stealthily placed skylights.

3. Arsenit's Piil treehouse

Estonia-based architecture studio Arsenit designed Piil, an elevated retreat, or treehouse, nestled in the midst of the Estonian forest. Piil offers a clear view of the vicinal Jägala River and is one of four such treehouses to be built in the area. The positions for the four Piil structures have been determined keeping in mind the whereabouts of every tree branch in the area. The treehouse is named after the Estonian word ‘piiluma', which translates to peeking or looking. Arseni Timofejev, the founder of the studio, compares the intonation of Piil with the English word ‘peel,’ exclaiming that it “fits with the aim of the project to peel away the mundane, the stress of every day—replacing it with a sense of calm and wonder that can be found amidst the treetops.”

The prefab home, nine metres tall, is a compact space, complete with habitation space and extended staircase design. The cantilevered portion of the holiday home houses the main areas, while the ‘leg’ houses the staircase leading upwards, as well as the service stations and the sports equipment store. The entrance of the residential architecture lies at its foot, positioned discreetly, with only a black handle jutting out to reveal its presence. A suspended terrace, imbued in the darker tint of black, serves as an open-air living room. By elevating the bedroom within the dwelling to a higher level, Timofejev not only minimises the presence of the structure at the ground level, hence reducing terrestrial obstructions but also helps facilitate a unique vantage point and exceeding solitude in the raised room.

4. Lasovsky Johansson Architects’s Bunker V37

Bunker V37 is one of the several bunkers that were built during World War II for the protection of individuals against air warfare. Built by erstwhile Czechoslovakia as a defence mechanism against German forces, the structure has now been transformed into a living space by Czech-Swedish architectural practice, Lasovsky Johansson Architects. The bunker reimagined as a mountain cabin by the architects, seeks to serve the purpose of one of the many rest stops (envisioned in the form of mountain huts, information points, activity, and meeting places) placed along regional and national hiking routes in the area. The original bunker design comprised an indoor space measuring 8.5 square metres, with 1.2 metre-thick reinforced walls. It had very few openings, hence making its interiors seem cramped and dingy. The adaptive reuse undertaken by the architects included splintering the walls to expand the area to 24 square metres. Further, the architects also cut into the concrete to create a horizontal glazed strip all along the profile. This not only lights up the interior space but also offers spanning views of the proximal landscape.

5. Mjölk Architekti’s The Glass Cabin

Czech-based Mjölk Architekti’s project, ‘The Glass Cabin,’ is a renovation project of a 130-year-old cabin. The cabin, stationed in a meadow in the Jizera Mountains of Czech Republic, has sustained the passing of time to stand firm in its place. The 130-year cabin has been transformed by the addition of a glistening glass extension at the rear side, housing a sunken living space, and leaving the majority of the home undisturbed. When looking at the home from the front, all one sees is a non-descript cabin. At the rear side, however, a transparent sunken living space and kitchen replace the original shed. The two parts of the home, the distinct past and the futuristic present were deliberately designed to contrast each other. They flow into each other without blending into each other. The architects not only respected the historicity of the space as well as its context but also managed to imbue the new design with a contemporary touch, hence creating an abode that, although detached from metropolises, utilises modern inventions to ensure ease of life.

6. Kolman Boye Architects’s Saltviga House

Stockholm-based Kolman Boye Architects’s Saltviga House is a weekend retreat for a family located along the Norwegian southeastern coastline, on a peninsula surrounded by the sea. The residential architecture combines the local building vocabulary with an updated architectural language of resource efficiency. It gently fits into the landscape without disturbing its natural terrain or overpowering the verdant scape. The architects separated the house into smaller volumes, responding to the landscape, forming two main blocks, connected with a corridor. One houses a large kitchen and dining space, while the other contains three bedrooms, a bathroom, a loft, and an informal lounge space. The distinct spaces separated by a courtyard towards the forest are protected from winds and are flanked by decks that provide clear views towards the sea and opportunities to enjoy the sun during different times of the day.

Examining the relevance of remotely installed habitats

When enlisting the best and most prominent infrastructural innovations around us, one seldom considers remotely placed cabins as fitting examples. These modestly sized abodes do not seem to mark the same visual presence as the latest skyscrapers in our cityscape. It is, perhaps, in their obscure presence that one can trace the sustainable ethos that pervades their existence. Seated in shrouded corners, such structures not only serve as sites pursued for solitude, but these are buildings that also blend well with their natural surroundings. In the absence of a pre-existing design language on such frontiers, the architect and maker is left with ample opportunities to develop their own style. On the other hand, the remote location of such structures almost always results in sourcing building materials locally in order to avoid an increase in expenditure. This, in turn, proves to be sustainable. Building in secluded spots also demands a fair amount of respectability from the maker. Structures are designed to cast minimal impact on the landscape and natural entities that exist in the area. Most edifices are adorned with colours that either blend well with nearby entities or complement the greens, blues and browns of nature. Against the extant culture of using and discarding incalculable materials, remotely construed structures can help individuals distance themselves from the lifestyle that encourages wastefulness.

STIRred 2023 wraps up the year with compilations of the best in architecture, art, and design from STIR. Did your favourites make the list? Tell us in the comments!