Danish architect Bjarke Ingels will create an autonomous house on the Canadian island of Nova Scotia. The customer of the project was the clothing brand Vollebak, which thus illustrates its commitment to ecology and provides an opportunity to show the “philosophy of hedonic sustainability” in action.
“It’s the fashion equivalent of the BIG architectural philosophy. Vollebak has innovative technologies and materials to create sustainable, durable, and beautiful clothing for the future, and our home is a powerful vision of how we could live on Earth in a self-sufficient way,” comments the architect.
The single-family home will be located in the center of the island. The project is a combination of individual man-made volumes. Its area is about 600 sq. meters, and the structure is formed by nine interconnected blocks. The living area is made of straw, and the four bedrooms are made of fire-resistant hemp concrete. The insulation will be made from seaweed, and the stargazing room will be made from polished concrete. There will also be a glass brick greenhouse where food will be grown for the island’s residents, and a Japanese-style bathhouse with baths carved into the rock.
In addition to the main residence, an eight-meter guest house with two bedrooms will be built on the eastern shore of the island – from wood cut down on the island. Both structures will be powered by geothermal and solar energy, as well as the use of sea wind power.
“The island is designed as a unique man-made ecosystem that has everything necessary for life. The brand creates clothes from everything from copper and algae to ceramics, minerals, and graphene, but when moving to architecture, you have more opportunities to show the beauty of materials that are both advanced and ancient,” explains the founders of the fashion brand.
The creators hope that the island, which will be renamed Vollebak, will appeal to those who want to lead a self-sufficient lifestyle. It will soon be auctioned by Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions with a preliminary price of $5 million to $10 million. It will be the first in a series of ambitious projects aimed at exploring how people can live in “a world of climate change, space travel, and resource scarcity.”
