Wooden Cabin "ANNA" Embraces the Nature with the Innovative Architectural Flexibility
The versatile wooden cabin ANNA Stay, from the Dutch designer Caspar Schols, has won the internationally acclaimed 2021 Architizer A+Awards Project of the Year Award. The architectural award follows ANNA Stay's selection as the Jury Winner in the Architecture +Living Small category.
Designed for living within the elements through the configuration of its layers, ANNA Stay is a dynamic wooden home in the shape of an open platform, enabling adjustments to its wooden exterior and glass interior to adapt to any occasion, mood, or weather condition.

Though it looks like a normal cabin at first glance, the unusual dwelling's walls can be slid apart to open it up to the outside, allowing its owners to embrace a semi-outdoor lifestyle. Photo credit: Jorrit 't Hoen
The idea of ANNA Stay is derived from a desire to live with nature's elements, rather than shielding them off. “It’s primarily about being outside, and about creating a dynamic interaction between yourself, cabin ANNA as your home, and nature,” explains Schols.
The cabin has two different ‘shells’ as outer walls, supported on rails. The inner wall, consisting of a framework of wood and glass, is separated from the roofed, wooden outer wall. By shifting the shells and the glass framework, different setups are possible.
ANNA is flexible as clothing. Any weather, mood or occasion. Simply arrange and rearrange its layers.
-Caspar Schols
Without any architectural education, Schols began his project in 2016 after his mother asked him to design a cabin. Schols was looking for a concept to create a dynamic connection between man, nature, and home. For his mother, he envisioned a flexible space where she could read or paint, organize family dinners, and where her grandchildren could visit and put on theatre performances. The original design has been further developed in ANNA Stay, aimed at short- or long-term occupancy.
Publicity surrounding Garden House led to a number of award nominations, including the Dirk Roosenburg award (Eindhoven), Radical Innovation Awards (New York), and the Dezeen small building of the year award (London). The first cabin became the top-3 most popular architectural projects of 2017 in the Netherlands.
About Caspar Schols
After graduating high school, Caspar Schols obtained a BSc and a MSc in Physics from the University of Amsterdam, working in his final year of the masters program on research at chip-manufacturer ASML (2015). That same year, he was selected to follow the introduction year at Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Arts. He was awarded a scholarship to study at the Architectural Association in London (2016- 2019). He currently works on a number of art and architectural projects, Cabin ANNA among them.