Volume Zero, a Mumbai-based architecture competition, recently announced the winners of their 2020 Tiny House Architecture content that was focused on encouraging sustainability and individuality through design. There was a jury of international architects (including jurors from U.S.-based Desai Chia Architecture and Norway’s Saunders Architecture) that awarded three flexible tiny house concepts with $4,000 in total prize money and A Forest For Rest by Jorge Cobo was at the top of that list!
A Forest For Rest (I see what you did there Jorge and I love a good pun!) is a flexible prefab cabin with a tubular steel frame that can be suspended from trees or set on light foundations making it versatile – think tiny house meets dream treehouse! The 19.3-square-meter tiny house is lined with timber slats and features an open-plan living space with a separated bathroom on the ground floor and an adaptable sleeping space on the upper floor that is comfortable for three people. Timber is 100% sustainable – the process of manufacturing timber uses substantially less fossil fuel energy per unit volume than steel, concrete, or aluminum; meaning that it has a very low carbon footprint. Timber (and wood in general) is a natural element which is non-toxic and safe to handle. The customizable home also has the option for you to equip it with sustainable technologies like solar panels, rainwater reuse systems, green roofs, and a ground-coupled heat exchanger.” Living among trees is a bouquet of sensations. It is a well-structured and complex composition of visions and illusions. The treehouse is the materialization of a desire for adventure, reconciliation with nature,” says Jorge.
Treehouses evoke a myriad of emotions in kids and adults alike, so to have a treehouse that serves as a fully functioning tiny home is a dream come true for us all. Jorge describes it as the shelter of childhood, a safe place, somewhere you feel independent and keep the real world at a distance. A Forest For Rest blends fantasy and adulting into an architectural marvel by giving us this ‘inaccessible’ home suspended between the sky and trees with the scenery of exciting adventures and sounds of birds.
Designer: Jorge Cobo
