Skyhut
Client: Best of Wales / Cambria Tours
Structural Engineer: Webb Yates Engineers
Design Engineer: Pipsqueak Developments
Contractor: Varbud
Stage: Selected Winners of Competition
Published: Architects Journal December 2016
SkyHut takes inspiration from the protected dark skies of Snowdonia and the infamous myth of Cadair Idris where mad-men and poets reside…
As part of a project for Epic Retreats, WGP designed one of eight mobile, ‘pop-up’ holiday homes based on Welsh traditions and folklore and set to move around the Welsh countryside.
WGP’s contribution was the SkyHut – an ode to stargazing, part cabin and part observatory. Wales is the country with the highest percentage of sky designated as an ‘International Dark Sky’, making it one of the most outstanding places in the world to experience changing forms in the heavens, especially at night.
The cabin is notable for its retractable roof, an observatory to the heavens, where campers can gaze out into the Welsh night’s sky at the touch of a button. It takes equal inspiration from the myth of the lofty Welsh mountain, Cadair Idris, where legend states that travellers sleeping out under the night sky awaken as madmen or poets. This tradition of sleeping out under the night sky is manifested in its roof, which can fully open thanks to a motorised system using solar-powered mechanical actuators (motorised pistons).
SkyHut is clad externally in sinusoidal metal, painted matt black, providing a robust finish and chosen to acknowledge the significant role Wales played in the industrialisation of modern Britain. Inside, walls are constructed with Welsh-sourced timber and insulated with unprocessed sheep’s wool. It features a 360-degree wrap-around eye-height window just beneath the roof line; the design asks you to look up!
WGP worked in collaboration with Webb Yates Engineers specialist design engineers, PipSqueak Developments, and contractor, Varbud. The SkyHut was featured in the Channel 4 programme Cabins in the Wild.