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    Insulation made of discarded sheep wool used for Argentina guest house

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    Local studio DUB Arquitectura has created a metal-clad house called Casa La Escocesa, which features “insulating blankets” made of sheep wool that otherwise would have been incinerated.

    The 150-square-metre project is located on a farm in Argentina’s subtropical Pampas region, which consists of agricultural fields that stretch over flat plains. The building site is surrounded by crops, sheep and polo horses.
    DUB Arquitectura has designed a metal-clad house with insulation made of sheep’s woolLong and rectangular in plan, the building sits atop a platform and is covered with a gabled roof. The house was designed by DUB Arquitectura, a studio based in Buenos Aires, to follow the site conditions and to allow for future expansion.
    The interior is divided into four main areas: a kitchen and dining room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a multi-purpose attic space. A breezeway lies at the centre of the plan.
    Plywood was used abundantly within the house”The central patio serves as an outdoor distribution hall and a space for meeting and contemplation of the surrounding and eternal landscape,” the team said.

    When choosing the building’s materials, the team opted for low- or no-maintenance options, to minimise the project’s operational energy.
    The insulation thickness varies around the houseFacades are clad in corrugated metal sheets, and plywood was used abundantly within the house.
    Discarded sheep wool was used for insulation, making use of a local product. The team said 4,000 tons of sheep wool are discarded yearly in the province of Buenos Aries.
    Solar panels line the gabled roofThe insulation thickness varies around the house, depending upon the orientation to the sun.
    “The house was used as a case study to implement the first insulating blankets made from discarded wool from this particular region, which is usually burnt,” the team said.

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    “Now, the house is measured every season to test the evolution of the material, which is showing great performance.”
    Glazing was minimised in certain areas, yet the home remains filled with natural light. Above the bathroom and the main corridor, the team introduced skylights to reduce reliance on artificial light.
    Special vents provide ventilation in the atticAll rooms feature cross-ventilation and sun protection on windows, including the attic, where special vents provide ventilation during warm months.
    Other projects involving sheep wool include an English sauna by Architects Holiday that has red shingles and insulation made of recycled plastic and wool, and a Chilean house by Team Citic that consists of three gabled volumes with sheep wool insulation.
    The photography is by Fernando Schapochnik.
    Project credits:
    Architect: DUB ArquitecturaArchitect in charge: Angie DubCollaborators: Belén Butler, Tabatha Walter

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      Modul 28 transforms fortified church in Transylvania into guesthouse

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      Romanian studio Modul 28 has updated and extended the rectory of a church in Transylvania, transforming it into a guesthouse that “balances preservation with innovation”.

      Located in the village of Curciu, the building was renovated as part of an initiative led by the Fortified Churches Foundation, which exists to preserve the region’s large number of fortified churches dating from the 13th to 16th centuries.
      The converted chapel and rectory contains a guesthouseRather than turn these sites into museums, the programme looks to introduce “contemporary functions” that will reintegrate them with the surrounding communities, Modul 28 said.
      At this site in Curciu, the studio has converted the adjacent rectory and chapel into a guesthouse, while the large church at the centre of the site remains open to the public.
      The main living area is housed within the old chapel’s apse”The initiative is based on the belief that turning heritage buildings into museums does not serve their long-term wellbeing, especially in the case of secondary importance constructions such as annexes,” said architect Andra Nicoleanu.

      “The design process for this project could be characterised by a meticulous approach that balances preservation with innovation, drawing inspiration from the historical and architectural context of the site,” she told Dezeen.
      Doorways and window shutters have been updated with pale woodA series of minimal and reversible alterations were made to the existing rectory, creating space for a double bedroom alongside a kitchen and dining area.
      Projecting out of the site’s boundary wall, the polygonal apse of the former chapel now houses the main living area. Three gothic windows surrounding this space, which had been partially destroyed, have been restored with thin-profile metal frames.

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      The old rectory has been replastered and its doorways and window shutters have been updated with pale wood, contrasting the rough masonry exterior of the chapel and the gatehouse.
      “Our proposal, especially for exterior interventions, emphasises reversibility and the temporary nature by utilising lightweight materials, namely wood and metal inserts,” explains Nicoleanu.
      “Essentially, this approach serves as an exercise in contemporary materiality, contributing to the contrast between what already exists and what is currently being constructed,” she added.
      A temporary timber structure sits beside the guesthouseA temporary, pavilion-like timber structure tucked between the guesthouse and the site’s external wall provides bathrooms, with a shower lined with yellow corrugated metal.
      “The most significant gesture in the design was perhaps the decision to add a temporary construction to the exterior, that arises from the desire not to alter the volume of the interior spaces,” said Nicoleanu. “Although it fits contextually, in terms of plan resolution and resulting image, it stands out through contrast.”
      A shower is lined with yellow corrugated metalAnother recent project involving renovations of historic church buildings include the repair of a 12th-century structure in Slovenia by local practice Medprostor, designed as a space “between a ruin and a reconstruction”.
      In London, Tigg + Coll Architects converted an abandoned mission church into its own workspace and, on the Isle of Sheppey, Hugh Broughton Architects transformed a 19th-century church into a community hub.
      The photography is by Vlad Pătru.

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      Eight creative guest rooms that accommodate visitors in style

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      In this lookbook, we’ve collected eight guest rooms from China to Spain that provide visiting friends and family a space to call their own.

      Guest accommodations come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Ranging from a sofa during our younger years to full-blown guesthouses later on, putting up friends and family is made better when we have a place to put them – no matter how small.
      The houses and apartments below showcase the myriad ways an extra bedroom can be integrated into an interior, often doubling as an office, storage space or – in the case of a Beijing apartment – a place to enjoy some tea.
      Read on below for fresh ideas on how to provide space for visitors.
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring brightly-framed windows, tactile and organic living rooms and mezzanines that maximise usable space.

      Photo by Jack LovelWeeties Factory home, Australia, by Spaceagency
      A deep red carpet defines this guest room in a single-family Australian home, which consists of three consolidated apartments that once were part of a heritage-listed cereal factory.
      The same red was carried into a curtain – which provides privacy from the living room below – and a corner chair, while built-in shelving sits at the entrance.
      Find out more about Weeties Factory home ›
      Photo by Eva Cotman and Maria CeballosBarcelona apartment, Spain, by Eva Cotman
      Guests sleep atop a platform in this Barcelona apartment, which also doubles as a storage area.
      Croatian architect Eva Cotman sought to renovate the apartment to provide more open space. To optimize its functionality, she placed a bookshelf staircase in front of the guest bed.
      Find out more about Barcelona apartment ›
      Photo by Ewout HuibersCanal house, The Netherlands, by i29
      To accommodate guests in this renovation of a canal house in Amsterdam, architecture studio i29 inserted a forest-green volume off the kitchen.
      The guest suite also contains its own bathroom and access door to a garden, while a built-in bed and shelving provide rest and storage.
      Find out more about Canal house ›
      Photo by Weiqi JinBeijing apartment, China, by Rooi
      Plywood units were inserted into this 1950s Beijing apartment to organize and provide more space in its tight interior, which was created during an influx of people moving to urban areas when apartments were often compact.
      A linear volume inserted along the kitchen and dining room can be used for storage, as a tea-drinking room, or as guest accommodations with a mattress placed on the floor. A bubble in the ceiling also provides a relaxing space for feline roommates.
      Find out more about Beijing apartment ›
      Photo by David MaštálkaRounded Loft, Czech Republic, by AI Architects
      An attic in Prague was converted into a two-storey apartment, with living spaces, a kitchen and primary bedrooms located on the first floor and a guest suite located in a mezzanine.
      In the mezzanine, a bed sits at the end of a long hall, while a bathroom sits adjacent to the stairs. A terrace in between the two spaces and skylights lining the roof provide a connection to the outdoors.
      Find out more about Rounded Loft ›
      Photo by Tim BiesFalse Bay Writer’s Cabin, USA, by Olson Kundig
      This cabin in Washington doubles as a study for its owners, as well as a bedroom for visiting guests when a bed is folded out of the wall.
      The space is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass, which is protected by doors that fold up and enclose the entire cabin and fold down to create multiple porches.
      Find out more about False Bay Writer’s Cabin ›
      Photo is courtesy Rubén Dario Kleimeer and Lagado Architects.Workhome-Playhome, The Netherlands, by Lagado Architects
      The founders of Lagado Architects revamped their own Rotterdam apartment by inserting a bright blue staircase and colourful storage units.
      An open loft-style room sits on the second floor. This has minimal furniture so that it can be quickly turned into an exercise room or used as guest accommodations for visitors.
      Find out more about Workhome-Playhome ›
      Photo by Iñaki Domingo of IDC StudioMadrid apartment, Spain, by Leticia Saá
      A wash area sits outside a guest bedroom in this Madrid apartment to physically and visually separate the space from the remaining house.
      The guest area, which sits directly in front of the primary bed, also faces an interior courtyard which separates both sleeping areas from the living room and kitchen.
      Find out more about Madrid apartment ›
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring brightly-framed windows, tactile and organic living rooms and mezzanines that maximise usable space. 

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      Eight guesthouse interiors designed for peace and escapism

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      A one-room hotel kitted out with a miniature nightclub and twin dwellings with labyrinthine staircases informed by MC Escher are among the guesthouses featured in our latest lookbook.

      Guesthouses are accommodations for travellers, including cabins, rental cottages and private rooms, sometimes located in close proximity to permanent structures such as homes or offices.
      Despite their temporary nature, guesthouses can feature distinctive designs created to be remembered for longer than just during their occupants’ stay.
      From a bird nest-style retreat in Namibia to a micro dwelling in South Korea, here are eight guesthouses with impactful interiors from across the globe.
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring gardens with swimming pools, cave-like interiors and striking accent walls.

      Top image: Trunk House in Tokyo features a miniature nightclub. Above: Photo by José HeviaLa Hermandad de Villalba, Spain, by Lucas y Hernández-Gil
      Spanish studio Lucas y Hernández-Gil sought to honour the original architecture of this eighteenth-century building, which was renovated to feature decorative doorways and original arched ceilings.
      Nestled in a wine-growing town in Spain’s Extremadura region, the guesthouse takes visual cues from its site, with hues of deep red and pale green that nod to the town’s natural terrain and surrounding vineyards.
      Find out more about La Hermandad de Villalba ›
      Photo is courtesy of Den OutdoorsDen Cabin Kit, USA, by Den Outdoors
      Prefabricated in New York, Den Cabin Kit is a flat-packed kit-of-parts for a steeply pitched cabin that is designed to be assembled in a few days.
      Cabin-design company Den Outdoors created the structure to cater to a guesthouse, study or yoga studio. Slanted wooden walls and a single triangular window create a cosy atmosphere inside.
      Find out more about Den Cabin Kit ›
      Photo is by Katinka BesterThe Nest at Sossus, Namibia, by Porky Hefer
      The Nest at Sossus is an off-grid guesthouse in Namibia with a thatched facade informed by the amorphous shape of bird nests.
      Thatching also features on the interior, which South African designer Porky Hefer created with bulbous protrusions and built-in furniture to mimic the stacked components of a nest.
      Pieces include a sunken Chesterfield-style sofa upholstered in oxblood-coloured leather.
      Find out more about The Nest at Sossus ›
      Photo is by Chao ZhangDream and Maze, China, by Studio 10
      Shenzhen-based Studio 10 designed a pair of guest rooms in Guilin, China, which take cues from the optical illusions of the seminal Dutch graphic artist MC Escher.
      Called Dream and Maze, the rooms feature colour-coded arched doorways and disorientating anti-gravitational staircases built within a seven-metre-high structure with a pitched roof.
      “The challenge was in keeping the balance between the practical need of a hotel suite and the illusionary, spatial effect we wanted to achieve,” the studio told Dezeen.
      Find out more about Dream and Maze ›
      Photo is by José HeviaAlfondac, Spain, by Aixopluc 
      Catalan studio Aixopluc filled a guest apartment above its offices with modular furniture that can be assembled using DIY techniques.
      Named after an Arabic word describing a place for both guests and for storing goods, Alfondac features various exposed appliances and living areas amalgamated into one space.
      “This iteration is an exploration of the potential benefits of having different activities and their smells – shit, lavender soap, pee, escudella [a type of Catalan stew], incense, linen sheets after sex, hyacinth flowers, baby’s poo and half-full glasses of Priorat wines – coexist rather than being segregated,” said Aixopluc.
      Find out more about this apartment ›
      Photo is by Texture on TextureNuwa, Korea, by Z_Lab 
      Nuwa is a tiny guesthouse in northern Seoul that measures under 30 square metres. Local studio Z_Lab renovated a traditional Korean home, known as a hanok, to create the apartment out of a single room.
      A porthole window inserted next to the bed provides views of the surrounding garden, while a sunken bath and walnut and stone accents define the rest of the space.
      Find out more about Nuwa ›
      Photo is by Tomooki KengakuTrunk House, Japan, by Trunk and Tripster
      Hailed by its designers as containing Tokyo’s smallest disco, this one-room hotel in the city’s Kagurazaka neighbourhood features a miniature nightclub with a bright red interior, a curved bar and an illuminated dance floor.
      Hotel brand Trunk collaborated with design studio Tripster to create the interiors within a traditional 70-year-old geisha house. Living spaces are characterised by muted palettes, including a tearoom with tatami mats arranged around a sunken fireplace.
      Find out more about Trunk House ›
      Photo is by Piet Albert GoethalsThe Olive Houses, Mallorca, by Mar Plus Ask
      Architecture studio Mar Plus Ask designed a pair of guesthouses in the Mallorcan mountains to celebrate the craggy boulders that jut through their walls.
      The Olive Houses are off-grid dwellings created for solo creatives as a silent refuge. Sloping cave-like walls were rendered exclusively in blush-pink stucco to complement the pale green shade found on the underside of an olive tree leaf.
      “To us, the [boulders] became a piece of art – suddenly the house was more about sculpting its backdrop and being its lightbox,” explained the studio.
      Find out more about The Olive Houses ›
      This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen’s archive. For more inspiration see previous lookbooks featuring gardens with swimming pools, cave-like interiors and striking accent walls.

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      Century-old Japanese dwelling transformed into minimalist guesthouse

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      Japanese architect Uoya Shigenori stripped back and reconfigured this 100-year-old townhouse in Kyoto to create moody and tranquil interiors for Maana Kamo guesthouse.Located in the historic Higashiyama District, the hotel was designed by Shigenori for Maana Homes, the owner of a collection of luxury retreats hidden within some of the Japanese city’s old streets.

      The main living room inside Maana Kamo guesthouse
      The goal of the renovation was to preserve and expose the dwelling’s original structure while creating a minimalist retreat for quiet contemplation.
      It has been shortlisted for the hotel and short stay interior of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2020.

      Its guestroom can be adapted into a yoga space

      “Preserving and highlighting the house’s imperfectly aged beauty is the backbone of our design philosophy,” said Maana Homes.
      “The beauty and soul of a traditional Japanese townhome is in its structural elements.”

      The kitchen has a central island covered with layers of Urushi
      Prior to the renovation, Maana Kamo was in a poor condition with unsightly vinyl wall coverings, tile ceilings and broken floorboards.
      These finishes were all removed, exposing the old house’s rough, wooden structure and original walls that are made from clay.

      A double vanity features in the new moody bathroom
      These original details have been teamed with dark, moody furnishings and subdued lighting, alongside new timber walls and floors lined with traditional straw tatami mats.
      Ornament is kept to a minimum throughout, while storage spaces for the hotel staff are disguised within the walls.

      Events space opens inside revamped century-old machiya house in Kyoto

      The lack of ornament is to ensure Maana Kamo guesthouse is “visually quiet” and free from distraction, providing occupants with space to slow down and reflect.
      It also allows rooms to be easily adapted, for example, a guest room on the second floor can be quickly converted into a space for yoga and meditation.

      The decoration is limited to a few handcrafted ornaments
      One of the biggest changes Shigenori made to the dwelling was the repositioning of the kitchen from a narrow space at the rear of the dwelling to a larger area at the front.
      This made space for a large kitchen island that is covered with layers of Urushi – a traditional Japanese lacquer made of tree sap that is water-resistant –and a wall of wooden cabinetry and shelves filled with local, handcrafted kitchenware.

      The building’s original structure clay walls are exposed throughout
      Where the old kitchen once stood, Shigenori has inserted a double-vanity bathroom with a shower that overlooks a private garden at the rear of the dwelling.
      The guesthouse is complete with an oversized Japanese-style bathtub that is accessed from the living room. It has a view out to the private garden and is intended to evoke the feeling of bathing in an onsen – a Japanese bathing facility positioned around a hot spring.

      Its old and dark wooden structure has also been revealed throughout
      In 2016, Shigenori collaborated with Masashi Koyama on the restoration of a century-old machiya house in Kyoto to create an events space. Similarly to Maana Kamo, the goal of the design was to celebrate the architecture and history of the space.
      Other projects up for short stay interior of the year at the Dezeen Awards 2020 include the small Escondido Oaxaca Hotel in Mexico by Decada and Carlos Couturier and OHLAB’s extension of a rural hotel in Mallorca.
      Photos are courtesy of Maana Homes.

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      Esperinos is a design-focused guesthouse in Athens

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      Greek designer Stamos Michael mixed his own creations with local artworks and modern furniture classics to form the striking interior of Esperinos, a guesthouse in Athens.Esperinos is situated in the Greek capital’s Filopappos Hill area, taking over a single-storey residence that dates back to the 1930s.

      A number of Stamos Michaels’ furniture designs decorate the house’s living room
      The house used to have a traditionally domestic layout, but when local designer Stamos Michael was brought on board, he decided to knock through all the existing internal walls to form an open, gallery-style space.
      Dotted throughout is a mixture of contemporary and classic furnishings that are meant to give visitors a “new way of experiencing the cultural universe of Athens”.

      A black staircase leads up to the mezzanine

      A few of Michael’s own pieces appear in the guesthouse’s living room. This includes a pine and plywood storage cabinet that’s been handpainted to feature a black-and-white chequer pattern.
      It sits beside one of the designer’s lamps, which comprises two towering, rust-brown columns of powder-coated steel.

      The home’s kitchen is painted a plum-purple hue
      There’s also a sculptural chair by Michael that features a metal pole running through its backrest and a small stool he crafted from two blocks of stone found on a quarry in Tinos, a Greek island in the Aegean sea.
      Guests can relax on a brown-leather edition of Konstantin Grcic’s Traffic lounge chair, or on the sofa at the rear of the room which is dressed with a mismatched array of throw cushions.

      Industrial shelving displays the kitchen crockery
      A doorway looks through to the kitchen, which has been finished with emerald-coloured cabinetry and black, industrial-style shelves that display crockery.

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      Like the other rooms in the guesthouse, the kitchen has been decorated with a piece of modern art. All the works were curated by local art foundation Grace – founded by Michael in 2016 – and will be regularly changed throughout the year to spotlight different creatives working in the Greek capital.

      The bedroom sits beneath the guesthouse’s timber roof
      The bedroom sits beneath the guesthouse’s pitched wooden roof on a newly constructed mezzanine level, accessed via a set of jet-black stairs.
      Terracotta tiles, similar to those used on the balconies of Greek apartment buildings, have been used to line the staircase landing and one of the steps.
      Surfaces throughout the house have been painted moss green or a rich, plum-purple hue. Michael has also carved out small sections of the walls to reveal the property’s stone structural shell.

      Chairs by Robert Mallet-Stevens feature in the home’s outdoor space
      Guests will also have access to a private back garden that’s dotted with tubular-frame seats by French architect and designer Robert Mallet-Stevens.
      Including an outdoor space in the house was particularly important to Michael, who had heard elderly local residents talk fondly of gathering in gardens and alleyways during the 1960s to listen to music or watch football matches.
      “People were always describing images that reflected a wonderful communal openness,” he told Dezeen.

      The garden is shaded by trees
      Esperinos joins a growing number of contemporary design-focused spots to stay at in Athens, which is largely popular amongst holiday goers for its wealth of ancient landmarks.
      Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte, the owner of Athens’ Carwan Gallery, recently told Dezeen in an interview that the city is emerging as a creative hub, and could even be considered “the new Berlin”.
      “It’s almost like if the city was sleeping for 10 years during the [financial] crisis and is now ready to bloom again,” he added.
      Photography is by Margarita Nikitaki.

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      The Olive Houses are off-grid retreats hidden in Mallorca's mountains

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      Craggy boulders jut through walls in these off-grid guesthouses that architecture studio Mar Plus Ask has built in Mallorca, Spain, for creatives in need of a quiet escape.Tucked away high up in Mallorca’s Tramuntana mountains, The Olive Houses are run year-round by Mar Plus Ask as a silent refuge where solo architects, writers and artists can stay free from interruption.

      The pair of houses are enclosed by a dense grove of thousand-year-old olive trees, which at points is interrupted by huge boulders resembling “natural monumental sculptures”.

      Keen to leave this rugged terrain largely untouched, Mar Plus Ask set about designing two modest structures – one that accommodates sleeping quarters, the other cooking facilities – that look like homes in the surrounding landscape.

      “Our first reaction was that only if we could come up with something that would add something in a respectful and beautiful way, would we ever consider building,” explained the studio, which is led by Mar Vicens and Ask Anker Aistrup.
      “However, it was calming that the functions we were looking to build wouldn’t be much different than those of the existing structures found in the area.”

      One of the houses is partially embedded into an existing stone terrace, which the studio hopes will help the structure keep cool during the warm summer months.
      A sliding teakwood door can be pushed back to reveal a grand arched entrance. Inside, the house has a series of smooth, sloping surfaces similar to those seen within a cave.
      The walls, floor and ceiling have been exclusively rendered in blush-pink stucco, as the studio felt the colour was complementary to the pale green shade seen on the underside of an olive tree leaf.

      A corner of the house has been built around a craggy boulder that the studio left in situ, illuminated by a skylight directly above.
      “To us, the stone became a piece of art – suddenly the house was more about sculpting its backdrop and being its lightbox,” explained the studio.

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      Just beside the boulder, an overhead shower has been fitted, while a single bed lies on the other side of the house. Outside there’s also a large sink, the basin of which is formed from rock.

      Mar Plus Ask created the second house by renovating a dilapidated shed on site that was once used to store tools.
      Surfaces throughout are instead covered in deep-purple stucco, a hue that the studio thought was more akin to the dark, glossy topside of an olive leaf.

      The structure was initially deemed too narrow to hold cooking facilities but the studio ended up carving a wide opening into one of its 60-centimetre-thick walls, which is able to accommodate a chunky prep counter and a sink.
      Guests will also have access to two gas burners and a wood-fire oven – water, like that used to service the shower and sink in the first house, is sourced from a nearby spring. This house also includes a toilet.

      Mar Plus Ask was established in 2015 and works between offices in Copenhagen, Berlin, Mallorca and Valencia.
      The studio’s Olive Houses project isn’t the only place where creatives can go to clear their heads. Back in 2016, Andrea Zittel launched Wagon Station Encampment – a campsite near Joshua Tree Park, California, where artists and writers are allowed to play out their “desert fantasy”.
      The site includes 10 sleeping pods, a communal outdoor kitchen and open-air showers.
      Photography is by Piet Albert Goethals.

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      The Nest at Sossus guesthouse in Namibia features a thatched facade

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      South African designer Porky Hefer took cues from the amorphous shape of bird nests to create this off-grid guesthouse on a wildlife reserve in Namibia.The Nest at Sossus guesthouse is situated on the Namib Tsaris Conservancy, a 24,000-hectare reserve nestled between the Nubib and Zaris Mountains in Namibia’s Namib desert.

      It’s been designed by Porky Hefer to emulate the habitat of sociable weavers – a species of bird found in southern Africa known for building huge, bulging nests that are able to accommodate hundreds of birds at a time.

      The four-room guesthouse is an evolution of the nest-like seating nooks that Hefer has created in the past by weaving plant stalks across metal skeletons.

      “I was convinced that my smaller nests were bigger than a chair or a design piece,” said Hefer.
      “I designed these camps with nests all over them and then I tried the idea for three years, changing forms and materials according to the locations I was pitching them,” he continued.
      “People didn’t really get it and preferred four walls and a roof…but I kept on trucking.”

      When Hefer’s unusual accommodation concept was ultimately accepted by the owner of Namib Tsaris Conservancy, Swen Bachran, the designer did a series of hand-drawn sketches to consolidate what The Nest at Sossus would look like.

      Shipwreck Lodge’s wooden cabins evoke ships washed up on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast

      The three-storey guesthouse is completely off-grid and operates off its own supply of water and electricity. Like the nest of a sociable weaver, it swells at different points to form bulbous protrusions.

      Most of the facade is thatched with strands of reed harvested from northern Namibia, supported underneath by a hand-bent steel framework.
      Some walls have been built using rough chunks of granite that have been carefully arranged to emulate the bark of camelthorn trees, which populate the surrounding landscape.

      Walls inside the guesthouse are also thatched, but in some rooms have been set slightly apart from the external shell to allow for the insulation required during the colder months.
      Flooring and joinery throughout are crafted from Rhodesian teak wood.

      Hefer worked alongside his wife, Yelda Bayraktar, and creative consultant Maybe Corpaci to decorate the interiors.
      The trio opted to have the majority of the furniture built-in, much like components are in a nest, and relied on a handful of striking pieces to “bring in the modernism” – for example, the living area is anchored by a sunken Chesterfield-style sofa upholstered in oxblood-coloured leather.

      Outside, a swimming pool for guests has been created in the same space where there was once a dust bath for zebras.
      “The zebras have been known to join guests at the house’s outdoor movie theatre to enjoy the odd movie,” added Hefer, “and surprisingly the local troop of baboons have resorted to observing with interest rather than destroying out of curiosity.”

      Porky Hefer’s self-titled studio has been established since 2011. Prior to that he was running his own creative consultancy,  named Animal Farm. The Nest at Sossus is the designer’s first architectural project, and joins a growing number of design-focused spots to stay at in Namibia.
      Others include Shipwreck Lodge by Nina Maritz Architects, which comprises 10 rooms that are each meant to resemble ruined boats strewn along the sands of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast.
      Photography is by Katinka Bester.

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