Into the Wild

Slovakia – Ark-shelter

Year Built: 2018
Photographs: BoysPlayNice

Into the Wild is a prefab cabin located in the woods. Resembling a container-type structure, it’s a place where one can escape from the hectic city life – a detox from stress. Basic and fuss-free, it provides an opportunity to disconnect, relax, and recharge.

The cabin is surrounded by stunning views. From the large openings, the far-off mountains, a lake, and tall trees are easily seen.

Into the Wild was built for detoxing, de-stressing, and relaxation, away from the hectic city life.

Despite its small area, the cabin features many windows. The designers wanted to emphasize an indoor/outdoor lifestyle – complete immersion with the surroundings. Rollable sliding doors blur the line between the inside and the outside.

The exteriors are mostly made of timber finish. Furniture, shelving, cabinetry, and surfaces boast of warm neutral tones from the said material.

Large windows and openings provide stunning views of the surrounding landscape.

Into the Wild is a compact dwelling equipped with basic necessities for living. It has a kitchen, bedroom, dining, bathroom, and living areas. A loft with pop-out roofs is a perfect finishing touch – a hideaway for some serious star-gazing.

Notes from the Architect:

Nowadays we live in a world where we are extremely busy and from time to time we need to escape from it. Escape from the stress, duties and civilizations back to our roots where it all started.

The past 3 years we have been working on re-designing, building and testing different types of Ark-Shelters. We want to create a place that gives you comfort in the heart of the nature and gives you the perfect setting for a detox of your mind. From this perspective we created a new Shelter type: “into the wild cabin”. With his 5 openings all around we wanted to create a visual focus of the nature all around. Each opening brings in another atmosphere of the nature.

There is a big openable wall side and the big front glazing makes you feel like you’re sitting outside. The milk glass window in the bathroom gives you the all-natural incoming light you need. We’ve made an extra module which is set on the roof and has a big window so you can sleep under a sky full of stars. The Shelter¨, with its low-tech outlook facade, is created so that it attempts to blend with nature, while refining its complex and sophisticated system that automatically works with space and light.

Thanks to an automatical system the heating, cooling and shadings can be pre-programmed. The double-bed goes up automatically in the ceiling and beneath the bed there is a hidden jacuzzi, this creates a new relaxing area. The Shelter can work completely off-grid through solar panels, batteries and rain water collector.

The 40m2 has a central black box in the middle that creates 5 different areas, every single side is part of a particular area in the Shelter. The sliding doors in the corners create more space and the different areas can be completely divided.

Thanks to the extra module on top we have more incoming light from above. The left part of the box works as a kitchen and a relaxing zone, the back of the box has a shower and a sink next to the window. Next to the bathroom we have the big bed and the jacuzzi. The extra module on top is another bedroom that you can also easily turn into a relaxing mediation zone.

This new Shelter has been a totally new challenge for us an it’s all about the details, we wanted to create a place that has it all in least possible space but with all the possible luxury.

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