natural campsite
Architect:
Wiki World
Year:
2021
Location:
Wuhan, Hubei, China
Located on the outskirts of Wuhan, the Wiki World Natural Campsite is a rural practice teaching base and research camp shared by universities to serve rural revitalization and sustainable development. The project occupies approximately 666㎡, using the tourism land and facilities on-site to arrange the dotted public classrooms, prefabricated wooden houses and natural building construction areas. The Wiki World Natural Camp also offers the ultimate Northern European wild living experience and will invite citizens to join the natural architecture courses. We hope to provide a site for more people to find a way to return to nature.
Wiki World continues the nature respecting construction concept, retaining every tree on site and preserving the original woodland and farmland paths and texture. All the cabins are self-developed prefabricated wooden structures built by the team and the user.
Simple buildings can be assembled similar to Lego. Wiki World maintains original wildwood construction techniques, and the façade of the carbonized wooden boards was manually torched. Tiny cabins, like building blocks, were placed in the forest. The cabins are all connected by metal components allowing assembly and disassembly. Wiki World creates a precise relationship between the cabins and the environment in the forest. Each wooden cabin is elevated above the ground, not adding walls or artificial landscapes.
The Natural Campsite project by Wiki World exemplifies New Wood Open Architecture. It unapologetically incorporates the inhabitant in the dwelling process, encouraging them to connect with nature and the process by which the architecture is conceived, fabricated and assembled. A small team of students works collaboratively to design and assemble the modest cabins located in the outskirts of Wuhan. The high level of participation gives the small dwellings deeper meaning beyond their aesthetic qualities. They are the result of student's teamwork and shared physical labour. The prefabricated wood construction system allows for this meaningful participation and plays a vital role in the success of these small cabins. By manufacturing the components off-site, amateur builders are able to assemble the pieces quickly and safely, without requiring specialized machinery or tradespeople. Each cabin is a unique reflection of the team of students who participated in its construction, giving the entire site an expressive aesthetic of growth and adaptation over time.
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