Microhouse in the British outback

The compact building with grooved facades and panoramic windows has become a refuge from the city noise for a couple of young Londoners.

Architect Scott Lewis from the London studio LAMA and his girlfriend Caroline Jenkinson spent quarantine with benefit: in a year and a half, they invented and built with their own hands a small eco-friendly house located on the territory of an existing farm in Dorset. A minimalist hut called The Bide serves as a place for its owners to escape from the city, and is also sometimes rented out – it can accommodate a couple or a small family.

The building was designed using the WikiHouse system and assembled by hand from natural wood. As a heater, the authors used environmentally friendly materials, such as sheep wool and wood fiber. The geometric facades of the house are lined with bitumen slate Corrapol of a deep red-brick shade – it reliably protects the structure from moisture. Lewis installed an energy-efficient ventilation system MVHR System, a Swedish dry toilet Separett and a shower sprayer from Nebia, which helps to save up to 40% of water.

The lodge is located in an idyllic environment of gentle hills, fields, and pastures. The minimalist boardwalk terrace allows you to spend time outside in good weather and even take a bath in the fresh air (there is a bath on the terrace, the water in which can be heated using a built-in wood-burning stove). In the interior of the hut, everything is thought out to the smallest detail: panoramic windows provide excellent views of the surroundings, and residential areas are logically distributed. The bed is located on the mezzanine, under which there is a bathroom and a kitchen unit; opposite it is a view window with a sofa and a compact dining table. There was also space for a built-in library with carefully selected books, and special fasteners on the walls allow you to stretch the screen for the cinema projector.