PREMISE

Somewhere within the fast-paced world of today, we have lost touch with ourselves, and instead of trying to live our lives we all try to race and excel at something that is someone else’s interest.

With all the work that comes with our lives, our health takes a back seat.
A lot of our lives have become sedentary and even those who are not, have lost the gratification it once gave, and in both cases, work has taken a toll on our health.

Vacation is a recent invention although not entirely alien, that the past couple of centuries have seen. It is an essential break taken from one’s routine life to rejuvenate themselves from the wear and tear their work afflicts one with.

But as all good things come to an end; vacations have a limit to them too. How can great architecture boost our vacation experiences?

BRIEF

The design challenge here is to create a net-zero off-grid retreat that is safe yet provides requisite necessities to balance nature with human life.

The retreat is expected to be planned in all aspects of how humans can be sensitized to living with nature, at the same time how it is planned right from its inception to its day-to-day running.

The participants are expected to pick at least 3 crucial facets which are prone to disrupt nature (for eg. energy, waste management, food consumption, materials used, construction process, etc.) while building or running such a retreat.

Net-zero, is a tough challenge to solve, and it can’t be until engineering and architecture both come together to solve this issue. How can design help us move closer to net-zero at the same time define how holiday retreats to be really built in the years to come?