Cabin of Sails
Wuhan, China
Three timber cabins on a wooded islet in Wuhan, finished in 2024, each with its own small dock and reached only by boat. A cabin is two metres wide, the width of a double bed, the architects' answer to their own feeling that any house in a forest is an intrusion; you cross a narrow bridge in, climb a steep stair to the sleeping loft, and the whole thing stands clear of the ground, leaving a sheltered terrace underneath for fishing.
The name comes from imagining Rod Stewart's Sailing as a house, a sailboat finally docked at a solitary island. The structure is glued laminated timber, fully prefabricated as digitally cut parts with small reusable metal joints, so a cabin can be assembled and taken apart again, and the facade boards were charred by hand. Every tree and bamboo on the island was kept.
Wiki World
A Wuhan practice founded by architect Mu Wei, who also started the Advanced Architecture Lab at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. It builds prefabricated timber projects together with the people who use them, and says it has built more than two hundred with families and communities.
Architecture Advanced Architecture Lab and Wiki World. Photography Wiki World, Arch-Exist and Yanjun Pan. Seen via @archdaily.
The picture comes from this post on Instagram.
Researched August 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.