People are looking at traveling as a way to care for themselves and relieve the accumulated stress and tension after long periods of lockdowns and isolation at home.
How might we design a Cabin in the Hoang Lien Son Mountains, Vietnam, for people to retreat in, following the given set of design rules?
Exploring Forms
Design rules:
1. Only 3 lines of rectangular sections are used to generate the form.
2. The assigned boundary cannot exceed 12 x 12 x 6 meters sitting on the slope.
3. The roof must be flat and continuous, with a maximum of 2 slopes.
4. The total usable surface: min 35sqm, max 90sqm.
5. Basic allocation of space for sleeping / dining / living must be considered.
Left: Cabin situated at designated space on the given topography.
Right: Top three drafts initial form-finding.
Design Concept
Design featuring V-shaped sloped roof following the valley topography it is situated on, and a glass window feature (left-side) allowing a wider-than-180degrees view of the environment.
Design featuring a middle cut-out from the roof to allow rain water to flow down the roof into a glass column and into the valley.
Floorplan featuring two rooms and an upper-floor that serves as a viewing platform as well as shade for the first floor from the wide angle of sunlight entering the cabin.
Model (1:50 Scale)
Front-View of Model featuring Glass Column (Middle), Glass Window giving wider-than-180degrees view (Left-Side), and triangular lattice roof (Right-Side).
Interior Space and Staircase of Heart Cabin Model.
Renders
Interior of Heart Cabin featuring middle glass column and lattice-roof.
Exterior of Heart Cabin featuring wide glass window that allows for wider-than-180degrees view of the scenery.
Conclusion
Heart Cabin was designed in collaboration with three other student-designers' cabins with a common triangular lattice-structure design.
This Individual Project was completed in Dec 2021 as part of SUTD's Spatial Design World module.
