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Cool “Green Box” Cottage In Swiss Alps Would Suit A Big Backyard In Strathcona

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With our city now so laughably unaffordable, thousands of Vancouverites are stuck imagining wonderful homes instead of living in them. “Spaced” is a record of our minds wandering the world of architecture and design, up and away from the unrewarding realities of shoebox condos, dark basement suites, and sweet fuck all on Craigslist.

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(via) A common theme in our SPACED series is escape. Typically, we find ourselves running away (in our minds at least) to awesome constructions on faraway coasts, precipitous cliffs, desolate plateaus and isolated meadows, but until today we’d never really considered the “hideaway” notion as literally as this so-called “Green Box” in the Rhaetian Alps of Switzerland. Designed by Italian studio Act Romegialli with the assistance of landscape architect Gheo Clavarino, what is camouflaged as a delapidated greenhouse (by way of gratuitous deciduous overgrowth) is actually an old garage converted into a guest cottage. The interior is dreamily Spartan with bare floors, plenty of concrete and lots of glass (including a cool louvred set-up in the kitchen). We’d take a version of it in the backyard of a big Strathcona lot with a staid old heritage house at its front hiding it from the street. Because hideaway.

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All images by Marcello Mariana

SPACED // Tiny ‘Nature Villa’ in the Woods

It lacks a kitchen but we'd happily cook over a fire nearby just so we could sleep in that bed and hang on that deck...

Contemplating Life on a Handmade ‘Floating Island’

The big deck holds a BBQ, a herb garden, a hammock, and several other wonderful things besides (like a baby blue canoe).

We’d Like to Self-Isolate in This Off-Grid Tiny House on the Other Side of the World

To be able to escape the city for the sake of social distancing is a dream worth having in these weird and dangerous times.

We Dig These Cabins Designed For Sustaining Good Times in the Wild

The cool and remote constructions take full advantage of photovoltaic panels, grey/black water treatment and rainwater collection.