Foreword
Competition organisers
Official Partners
The Cambodia Remote Hideout Huts competition is part of Bee Breeders’ small-scale competition series, run in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS’ What is Small Scale Architecture? publication and in collaboration with The Vine Retreat – a rural health and wellness retreat located on the south coast of Cambodia. Participants were asked to design a prototype ‘hideout hut’ to be adapted to multiple locations throughout The Vine Retreat’s lush, mountainside site. Winning submissions will be considered for construction.
As part of Bee Breeders’ drive to generate innovative, sustainable solutions for small-scale projects, its partnership with The Vine Retreat – a well-known Cambodian ecotourism destination – sought proposals focused on eco-friendly, cost-effective construction techniques, with the potential to become landmarks of green building practice.
The competition brief asked that hut designs accommodate two people for a short stay. The huts are to offer guests both a means for individual privacy, as well as community-based living. The jury panel focused on selecting proposals with strong, clear concepts that made use of natural materials and could be adapted to a variety of locations on site.
Bee Breeders collaborated with an excellent team of jury members from Cambodia and abroad, with a wide range of experience in sustainable projects, building with local materials, or portfolios of successfully completed small-scale projects of a similar nature. The full jury panel included: David Cole, leader of collaborative design practice Atelier COLE, located in Phnom Penh; Vichera Heang, head of the Department of Architecture at Paragon International University in Phnom Penh; Rok Oman, co-founder of OFIS architects, based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Paris, France; Chris Precht of Studio Precht based in Salzburg, Austria, who has worked on projects that range from ecological high-rises, to bamboo buildings; Sean Shen, Xuanru Chen, and Yu-Ying Tsai, all lead architects at Shanghai-based ZJJZ Atelier; and Magic Kwan and Kenrick Wong of Orient Occident Atelier, a Cambodian architectural studio.
Bee Breeders, The Vine Retreat, and the competition jury panel would like to thank each of the participants for their outstanding proposals.
Missed the registration deadline?
Explore other small-scale competitions here - https://beebreeders.com/small-scale-architecture

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Jury feedback summary
Outside In draws from the traditional Cambodian Khmer housing type. Its form is simple but elegant – a square in plan that transforms gently into a pure circle at its apex. The structure is open to above for natural ventilation, as well as to permit daylight to meet the ground within, where a single central tree gives life to the interior. The jury writes, “This project focuses on the essence of space. The windowless facade separates the space from the distractions of the outside world. In this way, maybe it's a built metaphor for 2020. The view connects one to the sky and to the hope of better days ahead. It's simple, beautiful, but also radical. Pure poetry.” It was also commended as “far and above the best submission in terms of a design idea that meets the aims of the brief and expresses appreciation of local material and vernacular.” The jury was impressed by the quality of the drawings and presentation, but it recommends the design of the raised platform and gravel rain bed be further finessed. The 'inside-out' concept and meditational environment are appropriately executed, encouraging the visitor to ponder nature in private.