To design the ultimate cabin habitat, a single cell, a single strand of design DNA…

Cabin Fever is a design competition born out of our passion for architectural design, interpretation, and the art of fabrication, and the idea of connecting with colleagues around these topics outside the work-a-day world. We believe that great temporary and semi-temporary residential structures are under-explored, under-designed and overlooked, so, we’d like to change that, and have some fun in the process.

For our inaugural year we invited some of the Bay Area’s most dynamic architects to join us in breathing fresh air and reinventing the cabin, and eleven of those brilliant firms accepted.

Over two summer weekends, we hosted the teams for charettes at the competition site—a remote, 15-acre parcel of gorgeous California Gold Country—to explore, dream, scheme, to unleash their creative minds on the landscape. The teams had five weeks to develop their submissions, with a great deal of freedom about presentation contents and style.

The winners will be announced on Thursday evening October 18th. The winning design in each category will be built at the competition site by spring 2013; winning firms will have exclusive use of their cabins for one year.

 

COMPETITION AREAS

DNA Cabin – Design of a site specific, off-the-grid cabin for sport, for the love of a challenge⎯a building idea in miniature. We encourage novelty, audaciousness, genius, madness and, of course, cost-effective use of resources.

Transitional Housing Module – Design of a universally adaptable emergency housing system for transitional living that speaks to the need for rapid deployment, simplicity of construction, economy, and intelligent design.

 

 

Media Inquiries: Email Crispin Barker, Principal, Barker O’Donoghue, or call him at 415-378-5397.