These tiny pebble-shaped seaside cabins by Korean studio Yoon Space Design are designed to be easily transported from beach to beach (+ slideshow).
Yoon Space Design has installed eight of the white ovoid pods on a sandy beach in Yangyang-gun, a county in the Gangwon-do province of South Korea. Each of the tiny portable seaside retreats has a floor area of two square metres.
Named Albang, the lightweight structures were hand-whittled from blocks of polystyrene, making them light enough to be easily transported to different seaside locations. They can be stabilised by being mounted onto small podiums.
"We always dream to travel and take a rest in different places," said the architect. "This project was planned to make a never-experienced space, not hotel, tents or camping car."
The blocks of expanded polystyrene (EPS) – the foam-like substance often used as packaging material – were hand-carved rather than moulded to give the surfaces of the final forms a textured finish.
The material was chosen by the architect for its resilience to seaside conditions, its low cost and light weight.
Colourful curved hatches open upwards from the side of each white cubicle and are supported on long metal hinges.
"Albang look the same, but each of them has different colours on the door to have their own unique characteristics and are called by their colour," said the architect.
Small domed windows with brightly coloured frames point towards the shoreline and neighbouring cabins. The porthole windows lever outwards to let in the sea breeze, and at nighttime the protruding glass circles glow like beacons from the light within.
Inside, the textured hand-formed white walls are contrasted with flat floors covered in diagonal slices of sap green and sky blue linoleum.
Photography is by Indiphos / Gimyoun Song.
Project credits:
Architect: Yoon Space- design (Seokmin Yoon) / Song Pyoung R/D (Park jungsu)
Construction: Song Pyoung R/D (Park jungsu)
Floor finishes: P- Tile
