Revolutionary Eco-friendly Wooden Cabins
Majamaja is a range of prefabricated, eco-friendly, self-sufficient wooden cabins
designed to revolutionise our way of life. At just 25 square metres the cabin ensures
you have everything you need to live comfortably without depleting the Earth’s
resources. There are solar cells on the roof to provide electricity for the lamps and a
water tank under the floor to provide clean drinking water.The thought process behind this revolutionary Finnish invention started with the
concept of designing a completely self-contained holiday cabin. It had to be 25
metres square and when you stepped through the door everything you needed had
to be easily accessible. Such as a dining table, this is also a bed that can in turn
disappear into the wall to create additional space. You can take a shower or cook
in the knowledge that you are not drawing unnecessarily on the planet’s scarce
resources.
The invention may be Finnish, but Danish design is well represented in the form
of minimalist linear drains from Unidrain; which are a perfect fit for the small
cabins, where less is more.
The man behind this eco-friendly living space ‘Majamaja’ is the Finnish architect
Pekka Littow, from the architectural agency Littow Architectes. The idea came to
Pekka when he wanted to build his own holiday cabin located on a protected rocky
island in Helsinki:
“The island has not been civilised. That means no infrastructure, no sewerage etc. So
I started to think about how to build a home in a place like this. I drew inspiration
from various places, including the military’s use of off-grid systems, and came up
with the idea for this cabin where the thinking is ‘less is more’. The cabins are self-
sufficient, while everything is super-functional and takes up as little space as possible.
Fixtures and technology are combined in different ways.”
The result was these amazing wooden houses which run on solar energy and
have water tanks that purify and re-use the water. This enables them to be
constructed in inaccessible and uncivilised places. In the future, this could be
essential for developing countries without any centralised utilities, says Tuomas
Autio, one of the co-founders:
“The cabins are ideal for those parts of the world where clean drinking water and
sewerage are far from the norm. We have built a few cabins in Helsinki, with more on
the way, but our goal is to create Majamaja villages all over the globe. The
environment will really thank us for that,” he says.
The sustainable cabins come in prefabricated kits as they have adjustable feet,
none of the cabins need foundations; which allows them to be easily erected
wherever required.
Danish design is the perfect match for Majamaja
According to the architect behind it, Majamaja is an expression of the simple
life. The cabins are practical because space is optimised and intelligent
solutions are utilized for everything from the bed in the wall to the drain in the
shower. Unidrain with their Danish design solutions are well represented:
“The Danish design style, which is very minimalist, fits very well into these
homes. I have chosen to install linear drains from Unidrain, as they are both
functional and aesthetically pleasing. The dimensions fit so well that I was
able to design the shower cubicle around the drain. The result is really great and I
am getting good feedback on it,” says Pekka Littow.
This unique design is not only available in Helsinki; the ‘Station F’ campus site in Paris,
the largest of its kind in the world, now has a show cabin open for the public to view.
Unidrain: established in 2003 they have gone from inventing the linear floor drain to creating
a leading international brand, spreading Danish design ethics and Nordic minimalism to the
rest of the globe. Unidrain products and accessories play a key role in the look and feel of
the most stylish bathrooms on the planet, from five star hotels in the Maldives, to the award
winning Herman K in Copenhagen.
For more information or images please contact: [email protected] Tel: 01428 788098
