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, sweet f~ck all on Craigslist and three levels of government that couldn’t give a damn.

(via) If this little cabin looks to you like a Jules Verne cross between a grounded blimp and a boat of some odd sort, that’s because “Mr. Plocq’s Caballon” was inspired by the woodwork of shipwrights and airship designers.

Imagined and constructed by Aurélie Poirrier, Igor-Vassili Pouchkarevtch-Dragoche and Vincent O’Connor and located on the estuary of the Loire River in France, the moveable pod makes for a compact cabin hideaway that “floats” on the landscape with its woody curves.

It’s available to rent May through October at a cost of 95 € to 115 € per night.

The 160 sqft project was inspired by Vendée local Émile Plocq (aka “the bird charmer”) who – so the story goes – built a ship designed for expeditions to the shores of Africa with the assistance of migrating birds.

To enter the cabin, a horizontally oriented door swings down – cockpit style – to reveal access steps. Once inside, the egg is split into a tranquil, glass-enclosed bedroom and a covered “head” area that contains a toilet, sink and storage units.

If we could lift the beautiful thing up and plop it down anywhere we wanted close to home, we’d pick an especially dry spot near Finn Slough at the end of No. 4 Road in Richmond.

Finn Slough

No. 4 Rd at Dyke Rd. in Richmond

Photos courtesy Aurélie Poirrier.