How three visionaries are imagining sustainable, more democratic dwellings

Sometimes it pays to color outside of the lines. Just ask Marcus Badman, 34. The Stockholm architect recently entered a sustainable design competition, led by Ikea, to harness the “global desire to reimagine the construct of our urban lives and the qualities we seek in our communities and in our nature” through the installation of temporal shelters in a “mobile forest” named Skogen. The contest, part of the recent international H22 City Expo in Helsingborg, Sweden, was conceived as an antidote to COVID-19 isolation, mass migration, rapid urbanization, and the climate crisis.

Badman’s challenge was to design a temporary dwelling that tested new ways of interacting with his own natural setting. The structure had to allow overnight stays, be delivered as an open-source plan that could be quickly constructed, and evaluated through the five principles of democratic design (form, quality, sustainability, function, affordability) by an international jury of creative heavyweights. Oh, and he had 10 days to complete the assignment.

“I was actually really stuck and had no direction of where I was going,” Badman explains. “That’s when I came up with this idea to think outside of the brief, and create these sort of walking paths. I was nervous how the jury would think about it, but I just went for it.” Good thing, because his daring design proposal won, with the judges commending his “poetic and playful take that goes above imaginary boundaries.”

Bold, innovative thinking was in abundance as Ikea sought to collectively divine a sustainable path toward a better future in urban development. “We wanted to tap into the brains of young creatives around the globe, so we decided to make an open call. I’m very happy to see the student’s different interpretations of the task. It’s when we collaborate like this that great and unexpected things happen.” says Marcus Engman, Chief Creative Officer at Ingka Group.

Here’s how the three finalists tackled the problem.

THE METAPHYSICAL ROAD LESS TRAVELED

Badman says his six-year-old son Neil inspired his entry, entitled “Returning to Nature.” As Badman puts it, where he might be turned off by tall grass, envisioning nothing but bugs lurking within, his son has no such preconceptions. “He has a deeper connection,” Badman says.

Harnessing that mindset, Badman’s design features flyover walkways that connect to multiple deprivation-tank dwellings, where one is meant to overnight in cave-like darkness to the sounds of nature. The dwellings are constructed in standardized timber beams with a repetitive design resembling that of pine cones.

In his project description, Badman explains how the elevated walkways widen one’s perspective of nature without trodding upon and damaging it: “Like being nude with just a pair of socks on enforces the feeling of nudity, the feeling of nature enlarges when walking on top of it.” That immersive experience is key. “Previously we were participants in nature,” he says. “Now we are dominators of it.… In order to have a sustainable future…we need to reconnect and see ourselves as part of nature. We need to look back in order to move forward.”

MATERIALITY MATTERS

Focusing on the prerequisites of an open-source design, coupled with the need to translate a conceptual idea into rapid construction, Emma Jurczynski, 28, also turned the traditional design process on its head. Whereas architects typically “think from the outside and go in,” Jurczynski, who recently graduated with a master’s degree from MIT, inverted that approach. A fan of materiality and reuse—particularly with ubiquitous, secondhand timber beams—she started by focusing on how a simple timber joint, threaded by a rod through stacked pieces of wood, could create a structural and spatial system in its replication throughout the entire design, one that would “challenge the volumetric form” while allowing “the simplicity of the detail to create complexity in space.”

The result is her multiplatformed “Tree-House,” a freestanding and highly adaptable structure that enables a “new relationship with the forest by elevating one into the canopies,” whether built in an actual forest or urban setting. Fabrics can be added for privacy or to adapt to seasonal climates; vines can be interwoven to bring nature indoors; modular furniture can be plugged into its beams. The jury praised Jurczynski for her submission’s functionality, flexibility, and applicability, in that it can suit a variety of different settings across the globe.

“I think that’s a crucial consideration [to] how we build today,” she explains. “Because everything’s evolving, and no matter what it is, it has to be able to respond to the needs of the community and beyond.” She hopes her entry—and the overall project—will encourage people to reimagine used materials in a way that diverts them from landfills, particularly wood, which loses its carbon-capture properties once it’s no longer in use. Most importantly, since emotional wellbeing is of equal import to sustainability, she hopes “this is an example of how we use materials available to us in creative ways, basically to make life a bit more fun.”

THE JOY OF DESIGN

Otis Sloan Wood, 31, knew which sustainable material he wanted to construct his nature dwelling in, based on his childhood driving through the Alentejo region of Portugal. There, the fabled cork oak forests amazed him, not only for the robust biodiversity of wildlife and habitat they supported, or for their ability to provide defense against fire. Rather, it was due to their peeling sheets of bark, regenerating an average of 16 times over a tree’s lifespan, that supported local industry through its harvest. “It keeps regenerating,” Wood explains. “That was really the first example of how industry might work in harmony with nature.”

Meanwhile, the cork features unique properties: it’s lightweight, waterproof, insulating, and sound dampening, while containing resins that help to seal its granules when heated. And it floats! This got Sloan Wood thinking about how to weave those qualities into a playful system that could interact with nature, adapt to the environment, and simultaneously create industries that protect the cork ecosystems which sustain them. The result? “The Cork Loop,” a compact, lightweight, and “deliberately simple” loop-like modular shelter design. The flat, packable pieces can easily morph from whimsical folly to stylish survivalist shelter gear, for which the jury lauded their simplicity, choice of materials, versatility, and “strong sense of social and environmental sustainability.”

The adaptability of “The Cork Loop” also elicits imaginative exploration and fun, whether through a hamster-wheel walkabout or makeshift raft, similar to Sloan Wood’s sustainable children’s toy company that teaches children different ways of building from across the world (as opposed to “doll houses”). His favorite configuration? “The one where someone uses it creatively in a way, where I, as [the] designer think, ‘Wow, I never would’ve thought to have used use it like that.’ That’s the joy of design, really.”

Beyond the joy of creativity is the reward in knowing that these efforts and examples will serve as blueprints for environmental wellness. In fact, tethering our homes, lifestyles, and communities more closely to nature— and its restorative, healing properties—is something the world can use right now.