trekBOOK trekBOOK is a trekking cabin that is exclusively Iceland - taking cues from the country’s landscape and culture to provide an innovative, adaptable, and ethereal trekking experience. 1 in every 10 Icelanders will publish a book. This design emphasizes what makes Iceland unique and interprets it into an architectural narrative. The cabin’s form and expression was borne from the landscape, storytelling, and authorship. Arriving to the site by helicopter, trekBOOK is a clean, pre-fabricated rectangular volume – a closed book. Upon landing, the pod’s diamond-pier footings allow it to adjust to the ground beneath it. In the subsequent steps highlighted on the right, the cabin is revealed by unfolding hinged panels, much like cracking open a new book. A trekBOOK is created by the placement of one energy pod bookended followed by two sleeping pods on either side. The hinged platforms fit together in a way that creates public gathering spaces amidst the energy and sleeping pods. This design can grow on a site over time, allowing more users to be accommodated as Iceland’s tourism continues to increase. trekBOOK can be repeated to become a complex of trekking cabins - an exchange between people from all over the world.
6m
Experience
LIVE
SLEEP
UPPLIFA
3m
6m
3m
WASH
COOK
EAT
SLEEP
GEAR
LIVE
6m
The energy pod is the heart of the cabin. Divided into two distinct zones, it provides for all public and social functions of the cabin. The kitchen zone has a electric hot pad and prep sink for small cooking. A foldout bar counter opposite the sink allows for additional preparation, collaboration, and trip planning. This space also acts as pass-through between the two outdoor decks. In the other zone, hikers can refresh themselves shower using roof-collected filtered rainwater and composting toilets. The large outdoor decks allow gathering, socializing, gear-swap, and the space to simply take in the sublime surrounding landscape.
GEAR
At the heart of all stories is the social space. Refill your canteen in the kitchen, and sign the cabin passbook leave a note for your friends coming next week. Then join the conversation on the outdoor deck and tell us your story.
PLAN | 1 : 100 3m
Acting as visual landmarks, each cabin is clad in brightly painted corrugated metal which mimic Reykjavik’s colorful contrast to its surrounding landscape. The green roof above allows for a hyper-local contextualization of lichen and local grasses. With a material palette that emphasizes the use of wood and corrugated metal, trekBOOK is a modern take of Icelandic vernacular.
SECTION | 1 : 100
FOLD DOWN BED REVEALS SHELVING
BENCH SEATING CAN FLIP UP WHEN BEDS NOT IN USE
AXON | BOOKEND
LIFANDI Living
Swap a story or two while taking in the breathtaking landscape around you. You can hang your pack in the sleeping pod, and charge your phone there too. That hike was incredible - refresh in the rain water shower and hang that shirt out to dry. Designed with simplicity in mind, the sleeping pod is designed to provide the trekker with the comforts of warmth, power, and water, but also a place they can call home. In the sleeping pods, the bookend walls provides protection from strong winds. They allow trekkers to customize their space, creating spatial authorship. With open views of the landscape on each end, the sleeping pods help frame the outdoor decks. The center wall is an interactive, user-driven built-in furniture. Two tiers of sleeping bunks can fold down depending on demand. Beds and seats can fold up for open activity. Each cabin is marked with a unique stamp, which shows the topography and trail for the surrounding region. This makes for a great photo op as well as useful way-finding display.
trekBOOK STAMP
CAMPING
ENERGY POD + TENT
ENERGY + LIVING PODS
POD EXPANSION
ORKA Energy
Travel light, travel well, leave no trace. Harness the sun and the wind, be light upon the land of fire + ice. trekBOOK embraces and utilizes the natural elements of Iceland’s cold oceanic climate, allowing it to become a self-sustaining architecture. With over 21 hours of sunlight during summer months, a series of solar panels collect and store energy for a majority of the cabin’s required power. A locally produced Icewind wind turbine, durable to the country’s severe winds, serves as a supplement to solar power. Water collection and filtration occurs through strategically designed roof slopes, that permeate through a green roof system. Composting toilets allow for minimal maintenance and water usage.
ENERGY MODULE
SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS
LIVING MODULE
FOOTING + HINGE SYSTEM
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Through a series of hinged platforms and expansion posts, each module has the ability to adapt to Iceland’s varying topographic conditions, while allowing for minimal on-site assembly. trekBOOK has truly been to designed to be nimble, sustainable, and memorable.
DEPLOYMENT
STABILIZATION