This Tiny Cabin Is Biodegradable, Recyclable, and Relocatable

In Brasschaat, Belgium, Polygoon Architecture designed a holiday house that appears to hover above the forest floor. The clients, Wim and Joosie, are both social workers, and one of their primary goals was to limit the project’s impact on the environment. Accordingly, the 750-square foot home is suspended upon a foundation of eleven poles.

The design team prioritized using sustainable building strategies and affordable, renewable materials. To this end, the cabin is clad in barked planks of locally sourced softwood, and the interior walls are finished with oriented strand board (OSB). The home’s wooden skeleton was assembled on-site in five days, and the design team applied circular building principles every step of the way. 

Wim even did much of the work himself—from the exterior cladding to some of the interior finishes and the fiberboard insulation. The home is so well insulated that its entire interior can be warmed by a single wood stove, and the home’s water heater includes an air-source heat pump.

Despite its small footprint, the project feels spacious thanks its mono-pitch roof, which creates 22-foot-tall ceilings at the rear of the home. The interior ambiance is cozy and bright, and a large glass slider opens the  living areas to a patio outside.

"This compact house with a habitable area of 750 square feet is big—both in ambition and spaciousness," says Polygoon Architecture founder Domien Boits. "It demonstrates that building ecologically, circularly, and small-scale can go hand in hand with comfort and smart use of space."

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Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Polygoon Architecture / @polygoonarchitectuur

Builder / General Contractor: Luc Van Overveld

Structural Engineer: Studiebureau Thielemans