Daily Times

Sleeping beneath the stars just got a whole lot more stylish, courtesy of this new cabin design. Mounted onto sliders, the walls of the ‘Anna Collection’ cabin can be pushed open, exposing a section of the wooden lodging to the elements. The cabin’s inner wall – called a ‘shell’ – is made of double-glazed glass, while the outer wall is made from wood. By manually pushing and pulling these ‘shells’, the space can be reconfigured to create a wooden roof or a glass roof, as well as opening the cabin up to the fresh air. ‘You might experience the beauty of a fierce rain shower from under the glass roof, wake up among the birds in the early morning and be mesmerized at night by the starry sky directly above your bed,’ says Caspar Schols, the Dutch architectural designer behind the structure. The cabin, which takes around five days to assemble, is priced at £383,600. Features inside include a ‘luxury’ bathroom, a shower, a fully-equipped kitchen and two queen-sized beds – one that can be stowed away under a latch in the floor and a second that sits in a mezzanine space that’s reached by a ladder. There’s also a bathtub, which is tucked inside a nook that’s built into the floor. The unusual shell design makes the cabin – which can reach a maximum length of 13m – adaptable to the seasons. In the wintertime, its insulated wooden shell ‘keeps the warmth inside like a thick winter coat’, says Schols. In spring or autumn, the glass keeps the rain outside or lets the sun in to warm up the space. When the temperatures rise in the summertime, residents can slide and close the wooden layer to block the warming sun. Alternatively, they can slide the glass layer open to let the breeze inside. According to Schols, the Anna Collection cabin can be used as a meditation hub, an office space, a holiday rental, an art studio, a guest house or simply as a home. It’s planned that the first batch of cabins will be constructed in Europe later this year. Once purchased, the cabin will be constructed on a site of the owner’s preference by Schols and his team. The design is said to have ‘minimal ecological disruption’ and ‘can be disassembled and moved at any time without leaving a trace in nature’. The designer notes that there are health benefits to staying in the cabin. Schols says: ‘By sliding the layers, “Anna” takes you by the hand to reconnect step by step with Mother Nature, which I believe is incredibly important for our own health and the health of our planet. ‘Margriet Sitskoorn, neuroscientist at Tilburg University, explains that what happens in the brain while staying at “Anna” is actually a strong cognitive response.