This year, 2021, the Architizer A+Awards for Project of the Year went to the ANNA hut, a design by Dutch architect Caspar Schols. His creation dates back to 2016, when, after completing a master’s degree in science at the University of Amsterdam, he was commissioned by his mother to create a housing concept connected with nature. So was born the first prototype of a hut that has caught our attention for its simplicity and beauty, for being extremely cosy and, above all, for its versatility. As the website where it is marketed says, “ANNA can be totally adapted to the occasion, to your mood or to the weather”.
ANNA is made up of three mobile sliding structures, placed one on top of the other, one inside the other. The one inside consists of a glass roof and walls on a wooden frame. The outer structures are formed by a metal roof and wooden supports and walls. All the structures, built on steel wheels, slide along guide rails. In this way, the hut allows for four different configurations, resulting from the combination of its three parts.
Its solid construction has been entrusted only to “high quality natural materials”. Siberian larch wood from sustainable forests clads the exterior, while light-coloured birch plywood makes the interior comfortable. The cabin is manufactured in a self-sufficient version, with a fire-heated boiler, solar energy system and waste water treatment, or for connection to the mains and sanitation. It has a bathroom with shower and separate cistern, a bathtub hidden in the floor, a fully equipped kitchen and space for two double beds.
ANNA is “surprisingly light“, easily assembled and disassembled, and can be transported in a standard container anywhere in the world, making it easy to set up in nature’s most isolated areas. According to their website, “it can be set up in approximately 1.5 hours and removed just as easily after the ANNA hut finds a new location”. Moreover, it does not require an additional foundation on most terrains.
To check out the virtues of ANNA, take a look at this VIDEO (by Jonas Sacks and Harm van Vucht)Â :
