The winning cabin design by German architecture firm AW+ will be built in New Brunswick this summer.
Community Forests International?s  panel of judges faced a larger than anticipated challenge last week, when 62 entries from 24 different countries were submitted to the organization’s Backwoods Cabin of the Future competition. The winning design will be awarded a cash prize and will be constructed at CFI?s Rural Innovation Campus in New Brunswick this summer.  The retreat will serve as inspired accommodation for students, apprentices and innovators-in-residence.
The winning design, entitled Be a Part of Nature, was submitted by German architecture firm AW+. The jury noted that it was ?a powerful, simple, and elegant form using recycled wood with straw bale insulation” and that it was “designed to take advantage of sloping topography in a thoughtful and effective way.” They added that this was ?a scheme whose qualities and design snuck up on us during the jury process.  Through a tightly and rigorously though-out minimal approach, its use of natural and sustainable materials and poetic quiet spaces will make for a stunning residence in the New Brunswick Forest.? ?This design did not immediately catch my eye, but on a deeper look it had everything we were looking for,” says Community Forests International’s co-founder Estelle Drisdelle. She notes that the design includes “low embodied carbon materials including straw, clay,...