Tag Archives: Garden House

This dynamic cabin expands + adapts its frame using sliding support rails for multiple configurations!

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Following his ever-popular Garden House with Cabin Anna, Dutch designer Caspar Schols built a versatile flatpack home whose frame changes with the weather on guided support rails the same way we change clothes to match the weather.

Nothing has taken the world by storm in recent years quite like tiny cabins. Following stay-at-home orders, our backyards suddenly had endless potential and we went searching the web for our own private oases that could arise in the comfort of our own backyard. But Caspar Schols, the architect behind Cabin Anna, was doing it before it was cool. Way back in 2016, Cabin Anna began as a backyard Garden House for his mother. Fast forward to 2021 and Cabin Anna is one of the most talked-about cabins today, featuring a structural frame that can be peeled away and zipped back up to adapt to changing weather and types of activities.

Constructed from two separate ‘shells,’ as outer walls, Cabin Anna’s exterior layers can slide away on support rails to reveal different configurations of the cabin for changing weather. When the weather dips below freezing and the wind starts blowing, Cabin Anna stands as a single unit to keep you from the cold. As a single unit, Cabin Anna appears as a traditional wood cabin in the forest where guests and residents can write, read, sleep, or have a movie night. Once the cold night passes and the morning sun comes, Cabin Anna’s wood trusses can retract from the cabin’s glass frame to create a transparent living space in the cabin’s center or on its right-hand side, functioning as a sort of glass-enclosed sunroom. Then, when the hotter months roll on, the cabin’s innermost glass frame can slide away to create an entirely exposed center room for sunbathing, outdoor sleeping, and general relaxation. Also equipped with the bare essentials, Casper Schols integrated rooms for a shower, toilet, bathtub, complete kitchen, and space for a couple of beds. Cabin Anna can also be made to order for off-grid living, complete with a fire-heated boiler, a solar power grid, and a water waste treatment system.

After completing work on his mother’s Garden House, Schols set out to build a “sellable, fully inhabitable house, as a flatpack that could be built and rebuilt anywhere in the world,” as he describes it. Cabin Anna gets the job done and then some. Describing Cabin Anna’s versatility and changing framework, Schols notes, “The inner wall consists of a framework of wood and glass and is separated from the roofed wooden outer wall. By shifting the shells, different setups are possible to align with your mood, the occasion, or weather conditions. Just like the way you adjust your clothes.”

Designer: Casper Schols

Depending on the weather, Cabin Anna is designed to change with it.

Cabin Anna is built with multiple layers of glass and wooden trusses, that peel away and slide back together when necessary or just for fun.

The natural finish of Cabin Anna gives it an organic, cozy feel especially come night.

One of the many amenities included with Cabin Anna is a spa in the home’s center, where layers of the framework can peel away to reveal an exposed centerpiece. 

The guided support rails make it easy for residents to transform Cabin Anna all on their own.

Beneath the frame of wooden trusses, Cabin Anna features a glass house that’s revealed once the wooden trusses slide on the support rails. 

On warmer days, Cabin Anna’s centerpiece can completely open up to the outdoors. 

This sustainable home produces energy and stores excess solar power in two Tesla powerwalls!

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An essential pillar of AMA–Austin Maynard Architects is sustainability. Whether that be achieved through solar energy, Tesla batteries, external Venetian blinds, or all the above–building homes that leave small footprints on our environment is something of the utmost importance for the architects at Austin Maynard. Finishing work on their Garden House, the team of designers has built their most sustainable house yet, one that works as a power station, producing more sustainable energy than it uses.

On average, the Australian home uses 19 kWh of energy on any given day. Turning that statistic on its head, Garden House produces 100kwh of energy with help from a 26 kWh Tesla battery. Finding the future of home sustainability through this sharing of energy, Garden House is powered by solar energy and powers the block’s shared energy grid. Since many Australians utilize solar panels to power up their homes, Garden House is in good company on a narrow street filled with garden oases and blooming greenery. Careful not to disrupt the natural terrain in and around the house’s lot, AMA developed Garden House’s layout and connected pavilions based around the network of pre-existing garden spaces and trees. This set the stage and literally the foundation for the home’s commitment to producing more sustainable energy than it requires to run.

The architects behind Garden House ensured that the home utilized passive building techniques, filling out the roof with solar panels in addition to outfitting the inside with double studded wall insulation, underfloor insulation, formed from an insulated concrete slab. Even the building materials used were chosen for their sustainable edge, opting for recycled bricks to build the home’s linked pavilions behind its shingled white garage. Inside, the home does not require any gas for internal insulation of any kind–hot water, space heating and cooling, hydronic heating, and pool heating is all supplied through highly efficient heat pumps. In addition to being a fully automated smart home that runs on two Tesla power walls, the designers also did not disrupt the lot’s original landscape and natural greenery in building Garden House.

Tucked away in a lush paradise of a backyard, Garden House is a lot more than meets the eye. At first glance, Garden House’s garage showcases a humble home with a pentagon frame wrapped in optic white shingles. Beyond the garage, linked brick pavilions connect family rooms and bedrooms and appear as separate buildings entirely, joined only by mirrored glass corridors that reflect the surrounding leafy gardens. Each pavilion was designed to break up the bulk of the home into four smaller scale zones. Inside each section of the home, concealed doors grant access to the whole home as well as the garden. Open balconies and lofty kitchen doors open up to the gardens, filling the home and its garden with a paradisal air.

Designer: Austin Maynard Architects

Using the home’s side entryway, the humble garage transforms into a lush backyard garden joined by concealed brick pavilions.

From the street, Garden House appears as a simple, pentagon-shaped home wrapped in optic white shingles.

Beyond the garage, Garden House blossoms into the family home that it is, accommodating five family members.

The home’s linked brick pavilions house bedrooms and family rooms that are connected by mirrored glass corridors.

The inside of the home features brick interiors for a rustic look in an otherwise extremely modern home.

Two Tesla power walls store the energy acquired from the roof’s solar panels.

Lofty doors and huge windows bring the family even closer to their backyard oasis.

Natural sunlight fills the halls and bedrooms throughout Garden House.

Ash black metal accents brighten natural wood cabinetry work.

Exterior Venetian blinds keep bedrooms from overheating due to the overflow of natural sunlight.