Tangible Emptiness
Honourable mentions in a Bee Breeders' Competition (The Cambodia Remote Hideout Huts), concept phase
Year: 2020
Year: 2020
Program: A prototype ‘hideout hut’ to accommodate two people for a short stay
Client: The Vine Retreat, a rural health and wellness retreat located on the south coast of Cambodia
Size: 22m2
Far from the city hustle, the hut’s living space, again inspired by the values of Buddhist Philosophy, embodies clarity of mind and peace. The bathroom and services are hidden in a way so not to disrupt the visual simplicity and aesthetic continuity of the building. It is through simplicity, and the purity of a minimal material palette, that we strive to interrogate and re-establish our relationship with nature.
Dissolved in the air, crystallised, immaterial. The hut is formed by a fractal bamboo framework. This technique dematerialises the common notion of living space. Inspired by Buddhist concept of emptiness, we are revealing that even walls of a house could be turned into emptiness and that among nature there’s no line between inside and out. Two become one. By perceiving Malevich’s ‘Black Square’ as the ‘zero of form’, we propose the emergence of a new formal architectural language, a language ensconced within the physical form of the rectangular hut and it’s gable roof, a language that could find itself replicated across Vine Retreat.
We harness the sensual and aesthetic qualities of bamboo, utilising its intrinsic strength as a constructional tool and its value as a sustainable material. The openness of the frame intensifies the dialogue between human and nature. Although, in this quest to articulate permeability, the needs of the guest have not been overlooked. So to provide a comfortable stay, curtains and a system of bamboo panels instil a sense of enclosure and privacy within the carcass. The hut, therefore, is a playful multilayered vessel, open for exploration.
