Colorado Outward Bound School Micro Cabins

The Colorado Building Workshop - College of Architecture and Planning of the University of Colorado Denver has created light, prefabricated and sustainable “micro cabins” for the Colorado Outward Bound School.



It's always challenging to build in the middle of a natural environment; the response needs to comply with the client's needs, possibly delivering a great result on a tight budget and all without compromising the site.



The Colorado Building Workshop - College of Architecture and Planning of the University of Colorado Denver looks like the perfect opportunity to learn how to do all that, i.e. to square the circle. The output of the 2015 workshop - the Micro Cabins - won the 2015 American Institute of Architecture Colorado Honor Award, the 2015 American Institute of Architecture Colorado Citation Award and a few weeks ago it also added the 2015-2016 ACSA - Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture - Design-Build Award to the list.





When you look at the photos – and Livegreenblog is honoured to be the first site to publish the photos taken in the snow-covered site – you comprehend that here architecture and landscape connect, without forgoing the overall aesthetic of these small buildings scattered across a steep hillside in the woodlands near Leadville, not far from the slopes of the famous Aspen ski resort.



These small cabins for the Colorado Outward Bound School were self-built in just three weeks; this was possible because each building was split into two parts - a “box” and a “frame”. Each steel frame houses a metal-wrapped timber cabin, and a covered porch provided by the overhanging roof, all of which encourages interaction between the cabins and between the indoors and out.


The building materials were selected to be low maintenance, long-lasting and to keep down the visual impact of the actual buildings.



The interiors were also attentively designed, and are clad with CNC birch plywood, milled to accommodate the furnishings for each user. This part of the project was prefabricated off-site, then shipped there to shorten the onsite construction timeframe.



The Colorado Outward Bound School Micro Cabins by the Colorado Building Workshop - College of Architecture and Planning of the University of Colorado Denver have been shortlisted for the 2016 A+ Architizer Award

Christiane Bürklein

ColoradoBuildingWorkshop - College of Architecture and Planning University of Colorado Denver http://www.coloradobuildingworkshop.com/
Year: 2015
Students: Derek Ackley, Sidney Aulds, Brent Beicker, Matthew Breen, Andrew Brown, John Giddens, Brandon Gossard, Aaron Gray, Dane Hardy, Chad Holmes, Casandra Huff, Mark Hurni, Timo Jyrinki, Rachel Koleski, Kate Lucas, Nathan Moore, Matt Ollmann, Aleka Pappas, Holly Paris, Nathan Pepper, Kit Piane, Ken Roberts, Louisa Sanford, Joe Stainbrook, Brandon Sweeney, Phil Stuen, Amanda Tharp, Elliott Watenpaugh
Maymester Students: Becca Barenblat, Jeff D'Addario, Sam Palmer-Dwore
Faculty: Rick Sommerfeld, Scott Lawrence, JD Signom, Jordan Vaughn
Structural Engineer: Andy Paddock
Photographers: Rachel Koleski
Community Partners: Altitude Steel
Carlisle Syntec Systems, Airgas, Oldcastle Building Envelope, Rocky Mountain Lumber, Simpson Strong-Tie, Cummins Rocky Mountain, DuPont Tyvek, Red-D-Arc Welderentals, Glass Systems, VonMod