Off the grid

A thousand-year-old redwood stump abuts an Airstream suite.

Cottage, Vallemaggia by Roberto Briccola

Using prefabricated materials for the exterior allowed Koehler and his team to drastically reduce building time during the construction phase. Cross-laminated timber panels (CLT), laser cut in the factory and assembled at the site within two weeks, add structure and aesthetic interest to the top of the home.

Also available is the Marrakech yurt, which fits two adults with a queen bed and a blow up bed.

Lushna's dwellings are available in Europe and the U.S., though for customers in the latter, prices can vary based on shipping costs and taxes. The baseline price of Villa Massive, seen here, is approximately $9,375. The canvas-lined Villa Air's is $4,453. To see Lushna's full range of products, visit their website here!

Eduard Bohtlingk, a Dutch designer and architect, designed this “urban camper,” called the Markies (that’s ‘Marquis’ in English) that was featured as part of the Urban Campsite art installation in Amsterdam. People were invited to stay in the artist-designed structures within city limits.

The House for a Musher is all about taking advantage of its hilltop site. The courtyard in the front has vast views and the house itself is oriented toward the surrounding landscape.

One North Face tent sits atop a deck; another caps the main building, which contains a kitchen and dining area.

Katie and Danny MacNelly met as University of Virginia architecture students and started their own practice, ARCHITECTUREFIRM, along with another former UVA classmate. Together, the couple designed and built their family’s country retreat, a three-volume residence near Virginia’s James River.

A tradition of weekend hiking trips served as the premise for Jeff and Millie Baird’s off-the-grid retreat in California’s Sonoma County. Affectionately named Camp Baird, the home is located on a 165-acre parcel near a campsite the couple and their two young daughters had visited for years. Architect Malcolm Davis worked with contractors Fairweather & Associates on the new build; landscape architect Cary Bush of Merge Studio incorporated drought-resistant nativeplantings into the property.

Having purchased the land from a friend who also has a house in the community, Schneider had a better sense of what she wanted—and what she didn't—her site. "From the experience at the neighbor's house," Foster says, "she knew she didn't want the house to have its back to the morning sun so we created a deck and somewhere to sit outside that faces east." Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!

For all its hard environmental work, one of the most immediate of the Blue Sky Home’s pleasures is how it sits so snugly in its desert surroundings.

#photography #joshuatree #landscape Photo courtesy of Clifford Nies

Stinessen placed each cabin carefully in order to ensure the best possible views and the right amount of privacy.