The 7th Architectural Visualization Challenge I’m running in partnership with Quixel as the marquee sponsor. The book CABINS by Philip Jodidio and the fantastic illustrations by Marie-Laure Cruschi served as the principal inspiration for this year’s challenge theme. That, and my love for prefab architecture design.

CABINS entry by Felixy

In the Scottish highlands there are small buildings called bothies in the hills which are free for hikers to use. I’m planning on recreating a building which serves a similar purpose.

Additionally, I was recently in Japan and I admired how hospitable people can be there, as well as their Onsen culture.

I want to create a remote refuge from the elements, with unused bunkers dotted around to suggest an inhospitable landscape. Weary travellers can use the facilities (you’ll have to suspend disbelief here because the cabin will probably have electricity…) on their way into the mountains.

I’ve still got to figure out the building but I’ll probably do this all in 3D.

Thanks for looking!

CABINS entry by Bartosz Domiczek

First of all, I’ve made the rough sketch in which I tried to build the scene that is interesting all 360 degrees around. Thus we have a deep hazy valley with some nice vistas, the cabins scattered along the ridge of the mountains and some uphill background leading to the glacier dimmed by the dark clouds.
I started my work on two elements: the mountains behind the valley and the cabins, certainly. I used world machine for the first one and did some extra refining in zbrush to get the details I wanted. Then some scattering and hand painting. I am not very glad about the results yet but it will be a hazy part of the image so it doesn’t need to be totally flawless after all.
The cabins are to look like some white ephemeral monoliths that stand out from the environment. They would appear from the valley like the row of Nordic gods, guarding the ridge above, being taken straight from some myth. Maintaining this poetry of the form is more important to me that perfecting the function of the shelter. In the end, this is CGI and its utmost fun is playing with space and mood in the way that architects cannot afford due to all the limitations of the real-life situation.
I built the wooden frame of the cabins and used zbrush to model the cap of the chimney (for the central fireplace). The external semi-translucent fabric was simulated in marvellous designer and refined in 3ds max. I want to keep it wrinkled and untidy.

CABINS entry by Roy.G

My cabin design is driven by symbolism architecture, my site is fictitious but is based on landscape features i grew up around ,through the books i read,films and books i watched. the symbol part is inspired by the spirit of adventure,introvert-ism, women casting in the wheat in the fields during planting season, birds of prey that lived on top of huge trees that would magesticaly fly off from their lofty nests at my grandmothers farm , the noisy rock hyrax who dominated a nearby scraggly hill top that nothing grew apart from the drought resilient cactus.
location of the cabins is inspred by the lofty eagles nest and rock hyrax life and rock climbers lifestyle.
the roofs turned angle is inspired by the “swish” of the action of sowing seeds in the fields and the slanted angle is inspired by the dive angle when an eagle leaps from its nest to catch air before ascending back into the sky above.

The cabins are accessible to the determined and are meant to be accessed by those who deserve them. first access/entry is by climbing the rock face even though there is a staircase in the back for easy access into the building but, for the Adrenalin seekers can scale the rocks and walls , this way it creates a sense of achievement once you get to the top. The buildings are attached to rock outcrops by steel framing strategically and also this is derived from how a rock hyrax adheres itself onto a rock by having large, soft pads at the soles of their feet but in this case the base of the steel structure will be on concrete foot pads.
huge windows and roll up garage doors are inspired by the views across the Kenyan Savannah.
there is a lounge at the bottom of the building to catch up and also an infinity tub at the edge of the building to soak yourself after a long adventurous day or hot afternoon as you watch the sunset over the horizon.

CABINS entry by kartik.lak

This is my second work in progress image.
My cabin is right in-between the forest. The lush big green trees dropping their shadow on the cabin keeping it cool. A cabin away from the machine noise and close to natural sounds. Living room , kitchen and book reading space facing the forest while the stairway and bedroom facing the open starry sky and huge trees.

CABINS entry by jayfield1979

I am torn between a cabin in the woods and a cabin in the frozen wilderness. I decided to try a feel experiments using Megascan assets for any foliage. I was hoping the tests would yield a favourite but as much as I like the detail of the foliage, I am drawn towards the high contrast bleakness of the frozen wilderness setting.