Disappear Retreat, Grand Marais Residential Development, Prefabricated House, American Architecture, Images
Disappear Retreat in Grand Marais, Minnesota
American Residential Building Project in Minnesota, USA – design by COULSON
5 Mar 2018
Disappear Retreat
Architects COULSON
Location: Grand Marais, MN, USA
Disappear Retreat

Disappear Retreat is a transparent, stargazing, triple-zero building, dissolving the impact on the environment physically and aesthetically.

This compact, prefabricated, off-grid dwelling offers an affordable, minimalist lifestyle in resources, cost, and design. The high-performance enclosure meets the Passive House Standard and will pursue Living Building Challenge certification, the two most rigorous environmental targets in the world. The 83 sqft building requires no active heating or cooling systems and has a peak heating load of just 100 watts (1 light bulb) in the extreme cold of northern Minnesota. It performs similarly well in cold climates from Seattle to Buffalo and Chicago to Calgary. This groundbreaking design by the architecture firm COULSON strives for a paradigm shift, inspiring the public and AEC industry that low-tech, sustainable building is attainable now without sacrificing aesthetic freedom.
Scattered amongst the boreal forest near Grand Marais, Minnesota like a family of spotted mushrooms, the first prototype buildings will form a Retreat Center offering a non-profit residency program to artistic and scientific professio...