Created by Adelaide-based design studio Das Studio, a new raft of retreats seek to combine the pared back appeal of off-grid cabins with luxury experiences.
Set to launch more widely in 2022, the studio uses modular and prefabricated models to create the cabins, with the first iteration, McLaren Vale Escapod, located on an existing vineyard in Adelaide's south.
Das Studio draws from a sense of place, with a focus on integrating the natural world into its design projects.
Escapod is a commercial venture of Das Studio, led by husband and wife team, directors Dino Vrynios and Sara Horstmann.
"The vineyard retreat project was our pilot.for a concept that we had developed around providing off grid premium five star level accommodation in areas where you wouldn't traditionally be able to have tourism accommodation," Dino Vrynios, director at Das Studio told Business Insider Australia.
"Whether it be a working vineyard, whether it be a national park, whether being environmentally sensitive environment, that was the seed idea," Vrynios explained.
The retreats draw on Vrynios' deep expertise in prefabricated architecture, with a new focus on applying these principles in a low-impact way to the tourism sector and off-grid cabins.
The goal of the project was to create a completely self-contained retreat that could be placed in remote or secluded locations that might traditionally have proven time and cost-intensive to develop.
"We can quantify steel, timber, the linings and all the different products and things that go into making the building so that we mitigate our waste for the building as well," he said.
Vrynios said the team saw a gap in the market between the explosion of tiny homes and cabins servicing urban professionals seeking to unplug, and the more established farmstay and rental market.
"The whole process is about being quite efficient," he said, in creating luxury spaces that elevates the experience of logging off from the grind.
Vrynios also said that as 'prefab' and 'modular' building practices became more acceptable and popular, particularly across the UK and Germany where higher quality projects were being applied to address demand for sustainable housing, there were opportunities to do the same in Australia.
"We believed there was a better way to do prefab and modular," Vrynios said.
"I think the immediate preconception that people have around modular prefab, or even tiny homes for that matter is.it's a lower quality build. We wanted to demonstrate that's not the case."
The studio also saw the opportunity to apply these principles to a potential tourism clientele that might not develop luxury accomodation themselves, but were looking to diversify the value of their existing property; whether farmland, a winery, or private property.
"They have an extremely light footprint on the earth," Vrynios said of the retreats.
"We could take it away within the space of two days, and you'd never know that it was there.
"I think that in itself is pretty special."
"We are providing efficiencies through the construction process, but also mitigating impediment on the actual natural environment as well," Vrynios said of the benefits of using modular building practices to create the retreats.
The fact that the retreats can be assembled and taken apart "within the space of a couple of days" to "completely remove that building and all remnants of its existence in the first place" means the impact on the surrounding environment is minimal.
Vrynios said the project would begin to expand its reach in the new year, with a discerning eye to partnering with businesses and locations that fit the brief.
"This isn't something that can just be dropped anywhere; it has to be worth it," Vrynios said.
The retreats "unlock value, and creates like a little ecosystem for the land holder, but also the wider community, wherever those buildings are located as well, because it helps to support the tourism industry in each of those different locations."
With 50% of the pod exposed to the elements, as well as being protected with double glazed glass, Vrynios said the project sought to combine the trend toward tiny homes and off-grid cabin companies like Unyoked with luxury resort and hotel experiences.
"It's an immersive experience within nature," that does not compromise on "the creature comforts that one might expect in a premium five star hotel offering in the CBD."
"Ideally when people think of this type of accommodation, they'll think of an outdoor cabin."
But then we want people to think of actually, I want to do the Rolls Royce version; that's currently our offering. The difference will be that."
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