In spite of their apparent simplicity, small cabins have always been a welcome design challenge in which scale, materiality and habitability must be resolved in order to take maximum advantage of minimal spaces. Perhaps the most famous exercise in cabin design, the Le Corbusier-designed 16m2 cabanon was a container of ideas in which the Swiss architect explored the "modulor"-- an understanding of the fundamentality of human scale. In the ensuing half-century, many prominent architects have ventured into cabin design both experimentally and at a primitive level, especially as a small refuge in harmony within a natural context.
We have selected 40 small cabin designs from around the world that explore different types of solutions according to context and programmatic needs.
Micro Courtyard House / Atelier Kaiser Shen (7m2)
Diogene / Renzo Piano (7.5m2)
The Treehouse / Wee Studio (8m2)
Antoine / BUREAU A (9m2)
Studentboende: Student Unit / Tengbom (10m2)
Viking Seaside Summer House / FREAKS Architecture (12m2)
The Cabin / JAN TYRPEKL (12.5m2)
Slice / Saunders Architecture (15m2)
Charred Cabin / DRAA (15m2)
Ecologic Pavilion In Alsace / Studio 1984 (15m2)
DD16 / BIO-architects (16m2)
A45 / BIG (17m2)
Permanent Camping / Casey Brown Architecture (18m2)
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Cabin on the Border / SO? Architecture&Ideas (18m2)
Rolling Huts / Olson Kundig (18.6m2)
The Truffle / Ensamble Estudio (25m2)
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Cabanas no Rio / Aires Mateus (26m2)
KODA / Kodasema (26.8m2)
Tree Snake Houses / Luís Rebelo de Andrade + Tiago Rebelo de Andrade (27m2)
Portable House ÁPH80 / Ábaton Arquitectura (27m2)
MIMA Light / MIMA Architects (27m2)
Knapphullet / Lund Hagem (30m2)
Thoreau's Cabin / cc-studio (35m2)
Slow Cabins (TM) in Belgium / Xavier Leclair (36m2)
Box House / Alan Chu & Cristiano Kato (36m2)
Treehouse Solling / baumraum (37m2)
Tower Studio / Saunders Architecture (37.7m2)
Escondido / Alberto Kalach (38.8m2)
Quebrada House / UNarquitectura (40m2)
Summerhouse T / Krupinski/Krupinska Arkitekter (40m2)
Refugi Lieptgas / Georg Nickisch + Selina Walder (40m2)
MINIMOD Catuçaba / MAPA (42m2)
Treehouse Riga / Appleton & Domingos (44m2)
Garden House / Caspar Schols (45m2)
Colorado Outward Bound Micro Cabins / University of Colorado Denver (48m2)
Whangapoua / Crosson Clarke Carnachan (48.8m2)
House Prototype / Luis Roldan Velasco + Ángel Hevia Antuña (50m2)
The VIPP Shelter / VIPP (55m2)
Eyrie Houses / Cheshire Architects (58m2)
Moonlight Cabin / Jackson Clements Burrows (60m2)
