Prefab tiny cabin is built for retreating to nature

In 2011, artist Bobby Niven and architect Iain MacLeod built a small, simple cabin and dropped it in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. This structure, called a bothy, is part of a centuries-old architectural tradition in Scotland, where bare-bones houses (i.e. no running water, no toilet) would provide overnight shelter for gardeners and workers who found themselves in the Scottish wilderness a bit too late.

Johnny Barrington via The Spaces

Niven and MacLeod built their modern version for artists to use during a residency in the Scottish wilderness. In the years following the first Artist Bothy, they developed more pre-fabricated tiny homes and spread them across Scotland, developing a network of off-grid artist residencies they called The Bothy Project.

Johnny Barrington via The Spaces

The tiny homes proved to be so popular with artists—and non-artists—that the founders are now opening The Bothy Store where anyone can buy an architectural bothy for somewhere around $55,000 each. The Artist Bothy’s vernacular-style silhouette is so simple it looks as if a child sketched it.

The clean lines are clad in corrugated metal and interrupted only by three long windows and two skylights. Inside, the house is built from light wood and has a loft bed, wood-burning stove, and small kitchenette. It’s a thoroughly modern update to the traditional bothy, except for just one thing: There’s still no bathroom to speak of.

Via: The Spaces