Paris-based Littow Architectes designed a cluster of off-the-grid vacation houses on the coast of the Helsinki Archipelago, Finland.
Referred to as the Majamaja Off-Grid Village, the cottages are positioned on a rocky waterfront web site that had little entry to transportation infrastructure or public utilities.
The retreat was developed by Majamaja, a Finnish model specializing in offering off-grid residing options, which was co-founded by Littow Architectes founder Pekka Littow.
Because of the inaccessibility of the location, the crew created a prefabricated cabin that might be assembled on web site with out heavy equipment.
The vacation houses had been constructed with factory-made timber body buildings coupled with cellulose wadding for thermal insulation.
“These buildings are breathable and moisture resistant with no plastic movies concerned, permitting Majamaja homes to stay unheated in the course of the winter season if desired,” Littow instructed Dezeen.
On the coronary heart of every cabin is an “all-in-one expertise module” on which utility programs run.
Rainwater and seawater are collected and purified to be used by a customized purification system, whereas grey water can be reused.
A dry bathroom was put in in every cabin, guaranteeing autonomy from the general public sewage system. The expertise module additionally shops photo voltaic and wind vitality, which powers the cabin's residing areas.
In line with the model, this expertise module is internationally patented and can quickly be accessible as a standalone product for different off-grid properties.
“Majamaja is dedicated to sustainable land improvement in areas missing infrastructure, minimizing environmental injury related to pre-construction works corresponding to connecting utilities and constructing roads,” the model instructed Dezeen.
“This autonomy can scale back the environmental footprint by as much as 80% and considerably scale back the pre-construction prices of a venture.”
Contained in the cabin, the interiors have been designed to avoid wasting house, with many of the furnishings being foldable and multi-functional.
“Adapting constructing expertise to tight areas introduces distinctive challenges distinct from typical development,” Littow defined. Each inch of house needs to be exactly optimized.”
“The planning and manufacturing processes require precision so that every component suits completely on web site with minimal set up work,” he continued.
Littow hopes Majamaja will function a mannequin for a brand new period of off-grid considering.
“Majamaja is a humble manifesto towards the efforts of gardens and mega-constructions, to which human beings typically flip throughout financial booms,” he stated.
“Issues simply get out of hand and the sense of proportion and scale is misplaced.”
Majamaja Off-Grid Village has been shortlisted within the Small Initiatives class of this yr's Dezeen Awards.
Different off-grid tasks just lately featured on Dezeen embody a rural farm in Australia by Gardiner Architects and a cocoon-like log cabin in England by Peter Markos.
Images is by Joonas Linkola.