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[Wild Home #95#] – The Sprite Cabin

Architect: Wiki World, Advanced Architecture Lab
Location: Huanggang, China
Type: Cabin
Year: 2022
Photography: Arch EXIST, Wu Ting, Pan Yanjun

The following description is courtesy of the architects. The Sprite Cabin is located in the “Fragrant Lake” of Huanggang City, Hubei Province, and is part of the Wiki World Co-Building Plan. This plan will construct a series of uniquely designed natural homes in Fragrant Lake.

What Would A Sprite’s Home Look Like?

The two sprite’s cabins are located on the Inner Lake Peninsula, adjacent to the waterfront, with a wide field of vision, surrounded by a bamboo forest and standing alone. The owners hoped that the house could fulfill their child’s imagination of a novel wooden house, and the lake and forest seemed to be inhabited by elves in the morning mist. What kind of wooden house would the sprites live in here?

The overall form of the cabin comes from the geometric logic of natural crystals. The plan is three hexagons sharing one side, which are used as the bedroom, living room, and bathroom respectively. The cutting surface of the crystal is transformed into an entrance and an irregular viewing window according to the needs of the view. The tallest crystal is the bedroom, and the design fully utilizes the clearance of the irregular space, setting up a loft that kids love the most.

The entire building is constructed of laminated wood, and each irregular component and node is designed and customized through digital technology, achieving 100% full assembly construction. The skin of the cabin is made of fish-skin like wood tiles and mirror aluminum plates. The lakeside features a rustic wood texture, while the entrance side backed by the bamboo forest uses mirror aluminum plates to reduce the pressure of the building on the environment. The two seemingly conflicting materials complement each other and blend the cabin with the environment.

Wiki World continues the natural construction concept, we retain every tree in the site, keep the path and texture of the original woodland and farmland, all the cabins are self-developed prefabricated wooden structure, built together by the team and the user.

Wooden Crystal

The sprite’s cabins are located on a secluded peninsula, providing enough seclusion to the point of feeling lonely. The spirituality of the sprites comes from the pointed shape when viewed from the waterfront, the rustic wooden surface, and the translucent irregular windows. In the evening, the lake surface reflects the nimble lights, and in nature, the square shape may seem somewhat out of place. The sprite’s Home is a pure wooden structure with a fireplace inside. The owners can walk freely in the space with bare feet. The space in the crystal structure rises high without the concept of floors. Lying in bed or sitting on the ground, one can see the nearby water surface through the triangular windows.

Wiki World-Build Small, Dream Big

Wiki World has been committed to returning to natural life through natural construction. The sprite  cabin continues such a natural wild house experiment, jumping out of the inertia of the size of the thinking, focusing on the relationship between living behaviour and environment, the answer of space must be far from the daily living experience, even a little paranoid. “Small” brings us closer to the material, so we are more sensitive. Now that we are in the forest, let’s go barefoot for a day and listen to the sound of dead leaves being crushed on the terrace.

Build Naturally

Natural buildings can be built like Lego. Little cabins, like building blocks, were placed in the forest. We stick to the original wild wood construction technique that we hand fired the façade of the carbonized wood boards. The cabins are all connected by small metal components that can be repeatedly assembled.

We try to create a precise relationship between the cabins and the environment in the nature. Each wooden cabin is elevated above the ground, and no walls or artificial landscapes are used. Nature is the best package.

Project Details

• Project Name: [Wild Home #95#] – The Sprite Cabin
• Location: Huanggang, Hubei province, China
• Date: 2022
• Floor area: 64m2
• Design firm: Wiki World (www.wiki-building.com) + Advanced Architecture Lab
  • Architect: Mu Wei, Zhang Yingchun, Wu Baorong, Feng Zhaoxian, Li Jiaqi, Tao Liwen
• Client: Hongan Fushan real estate development, Fragrant Lake
• Structure: Pre-fabricated timber
• Construction: Wiki World
• Wood supplier: Glue laminated wood from Finland
• Isolations: Rothoblaas, Italy
• Photo by: Arch EXIST, Wu Ting, Pan Yanjun