The versatile wooden cabin, ANNA Stay, from the Dutch designer Caspar Schols, has taken out the internationally acclaimed 2021 Architizer A+Awards Project of the Year Award. The architectural award follows ANNA Stay’s selection as the Jury Winner in the Architecture +Living Small category.
With more than 5,000 entries, from more than 100 countries, the Architizer A+Awards is the world’s largest awards program for architecture and building products, with five Project of the Year Awards handed out that champion architecture’s impact on everyday life.
ANNA Stay is a dynamic wooden home in the shape of an open platform, enabling adjustments to its wooden exterior and glass interior to adapt to any occasion, mood, or weather condition.
“We are very pleased to receive this A+ Awards Project of the Year Award. Being recognised with this prestigious award is a great honour,” said Schols.
“With ANNA Stay, we want to invite people to experience living outdoors, and to create a deeper connection with nature, self, and others. We believe that the enhancement of this sensitivity will result in more love and care for nature, the planet, and for people at large.”
Living with nature
According to Schols, the idea of ANNA Stay is derived from a desire to live with nature’s elements, rather than shielding them off.
“It’s primarily about being outside, and about creating a dynamic interaction between yourself, cabin ANNA as your home, and nature,” he said.
The cabin has two different ‘shells’ as outer walls, supported on rails. The inner wall, consisting of a framework of wood and glass, is separated from the roofed, wooden outer wall. By shifting the shells and the glass framework, different setups are possible.
“Just as you adjust your clothes to suit the weather, your mood, or the occasion,” Schols continues.
ANNA’s ability to adapt and change enables its inhabitants to follow their senses.
“She gives the freedom to live among an abundance of life, and cultivates a sense of belonging. You become part of everything around you, and I believe that everyone recognises that feeling deeply from within.” Schols said.
Project background
Without any architectural education, Schols began his project in 2016 after his mother asked him to design a garden house. Schols was looking for a concept to create a dynamic connection between man, nature, and home.
For his mother, he envisioned a flexible space where she could read or paint, organise family dinners, and where her grandchildren could visit and put on theatre performances.
The original design has been further developed in ANNA Stay, aimed at short- or long-term occupancy.
Photo credit: Jorrit ‘t Hoen.
About Caspar Schols
After graduating high school, Caspar Schols obtained a BSc and a MSc in Physics from the University of Amsterdam, working in his final year of the masters program on research at chip-manufacturer ASML (2015). That same year, he was selected to follow the introduction year at Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Arts.
In 2016, Schols designed and built Garden House for his mother. Publicity surrounding Garden House led to a number of award nominations, including the Dirk Roosenburg award (Eindhoven), Radical Innovation Awards (New York), and the Dezeen small building of the year award (London). Garden House became the top-3 most popular architectural project of 2017 in the Netherlands.
Around that same time, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the Architectural Association in London (2016- 2019). He currently works on a number of art and architectural projects, Cabin ANNA among them.
