Hölick Sea Resort has operated for many years as a traditional tenting campground 300 km north of Stockholm. It sits at the tip of a peninsula, surrounded by sandy beaches and natural forest. The resort already had a few small cabins but the owners wanted to add some more modern cabins to appeal to a wider clientèle. They approached architect Mats Edlund, who collaborated with architects Henrietta Palmer and Matts Ingman to produce two designs, the larger of which we will look at today.
From a distance, this small house appears pretty straightforward. Cabaña Bascuñan has a simple shed-like shape with a roof that extends out to shelter the porch. But get closer and you realize that things aren’t quite as they seem. The gable end windows appear symmetrical at first glance until you notice that they don’t align with the peak of the roof. The roof has the usual overhang on one side but on the other side it folds down to form the wall. One window is recessed slightly; another protrudes from the wall. These and other unexpected elements enrich the experience of visiting the house.
This classic Florida cottage is in the master-planned resort community of Seaside, Florida. Named Dream Catcher, the small cottage has two bedrooms and a sleeping loft in 1,035 ft2 (96.2 m2). It is topped by a Dutch gable roof, similar to a hip roof but with a small gable at the peak. Hip and Dutch gable roofs are popular in hurricane-prone areas of the coast as both keep the roof line low on all four sides, providing greater resistance to hurricane force winds than a gable roof does.
photo courtesy of Huus og Heim
This small forest home in Norway was designed by Huus og Heim Arkitektur. The client asked that the house be designed to preserve and respect the natural character of the site. It mixes the clean lines of modern design with a traditional timber frame and extensive use of wood as requested by the client.
Romania’s entry into Solar Decathlon Europe 2012 is called PRISPA (“porch”). The PRISPA team took a keep-it-simple approach to the design of the house, forgoing a lot of the cutting-edge technology favored by the other teams. Instead they adapted tried-and-true materials and systems, using them in innovative ways. As a result, PRISPA was the least-expensive house to build at SDE 2012, and is probably one of the most viable for production. Nevertheless, it still meets the goal of producing more energy than it consumes.
