Cabin design results for CFI's International Sustainable Architecture Competition, New Brunswick

If designing cabins is your thing, maybe you can find ideas from the Community Forest International's International Sustainable Architecture Competition in New Brunswick, Canada.

To their surprise, the jury received 50 entries from around the globe -- with most of them submitted near the deadline. No surprise there.

The submissions presented new approaches to cabin design, but the jury decided "The Whaelghinbran Nomadic Cabin", by recent master's graduate Nathan Fisher from Toronto, was the most suitable for CFI's developing Rural Innovation Campus. Fisher's proposal will be built this summer.

Check out the rest of the results below.

1st Prize – The Whaelghinbran Nomadic Cabin
Designer: Nathan Fisher, B.Arch Sci, M.Arch  
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Designer Comments: "'Transporting the cabin mitigates the environmental impact on the forest by allowing users to periodically relocate to permit old sites to regenerate. As an example, cabins can be moved over winter snow, pulled by farm equipment  or livestock on a large sled or trailer and relocated before Spring on a new site to allow the previous location to regenerate. The ability to transport the  cabin can also allow construction to occur in a controlled environment, removing the environmentally harsh construction process from the sensitive forest.  - Nathan Fisher, B.Arch Sci, M.Arch

 

1st Runner Up – Acadian Abstraction
Designer: Belle Stone, BA, M.Arch
Location: New York, NY, USA

Designer comment: "'The common relationship between a person’s dwelling and their natural surroundings is far too often expressed by a definitive threshold creating a distinct line of separation. The intention of ‘Acadian Abstraction’ is to extend this moment, creating a transitional space of  ambiguity between a person’s enclosure and their natural surroundings. This extended threshold blends the built environment with the natural surroundings, challenging one to question where nature ends and where the built environment begins.': - Belle Stone, BA, M.Arch

Judge’s Award for Architectural Poetry – Hearth 
Designers: Kyle Schumann, B.Arch & Katie MacDonald, B.Arch 
Location:  Los Angeles, California, USA

Designers' Comment: "'Distilling the components of the classic backwoods cabin down to a wood stove and a stack of firewood, Hearth hybridizes conventionally disjunct elements into a seamless occupiable space - a domestic chimney.  Contrasting the vertical timbers of the farm's wooded landscape, the building   takes form as a horizontal layering of wood members, from the slatted rainscreen facade to the logs it stows. Stocked with logs that double as both fuel and ornament, the cabin is readily equipped for cold nights. A warm sanctuary in the wooded landscape, Hearth offers an intimate fireside seating area and lodging for two visitors.'"  - Kyle Schumann, B.Arch & Katie MacDonald, B.Arch

People’s Choice Award – Marlice (Determined by highest number of online votes from the general public.)
Designers: Alice Dupin, M.C.E, M.Arch and Marion Filliatre, M.C.E, M.Arch 
Location:  Paris, France    

Designers' Comment:  "'The visitor discovers the shrine at a bend in the path, the dynamics of inclined surfaces of the facades leads to the viewpoint. These are led by clapboard wood, reminiscent of the verticality and rhythm of tree trunks in the forest. The cabin shows two levels of reading, far and near, the façade appears to be continuous and then singular elements stand out - as in the dense forest...'"   - Alice Dupin, M.C.E, M.Arch and Marion Filliatre, M.C.E, M.Arch

Images courtesy of the CFI International Sustainable Architecture Competition