Back to nature | Ark-shelter

In the pre-epidemic times, we often longed for escaping into nature and for distancing ourselves from society. In the past months, perhaps we managed to slow down a little, but our need to escape our everyday lives still prevails. Owing to its minimalist design, the cabin called Ark-shelter blends in with the landscape and allows us to connect with nature and become one with it.

Slovakian-born architect duo Michiel De Backer and Martin Mikovčák have worked on designing, testing and building various shelters in the past years. As a result, they came up with the perfect cabin, providing the highest possible degree of comfort and relaxation, in the smallest possible space.

The structure is dominated by large windows and inlaid glass surfaces, thus offering a splendid view, and thus allowing visitors to enjoy nature surrounding them from utmost comfort. The openable wall on one side of the shelter and the inlaid glass surface applied in the front may make us feel as if we were outdoors. A complementary module equipped with a large window was also designed on top of the cabin, allowing visitors to gaze at the starry sky.

When designing the cabin, the provision of maximum comfort was also important in addition to the creation of a natural atmosphere. Owing to its automated system, cooling, heating and shading can be manually controlled according to our needs and wishes. The double bed in the cabin can be hid in the ceiling, thus revealing the jacuzzi below. Another important factor is that the house runs on the electricity generated by solar panels and a rainwater collection system.

There is a 40 sqm black box in the center of the cabin, dividing it into five rooms: with the help of sliding doors, the rooms can be separated from each other completely, but can also be arranged into one big space. The left part of the box works as a kitchen and a relaxing zone, the back of the box has a bathroom, and next to the bathroom is the bedroom also hiding the jacuzzi mentioned before. The extra module on top is another bedroom that you can also easily turn into a relaxing meditation zone.