Read-Nest cabin, Denmark

(Image credit: press)

last updated 28 October 2022

Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter's Read-Nest is perhaps the smallest project we've shown in this series. At less than ten square metres, this wooden hut is set at the foot of the client's garden in an unnamed Danish location. Deliberately austere, the building is dedicated to one simple function, as its name suggests.

See more images of DMA's smallest project to date

The Read-Nest was prefabricated off-site before being trucked to the client's house and snapped into place - the architects point out that there's always the option of re-siting the structure should the need arise. The exterior of the structure is clad in slender slats of naturally oiled wood. A pitched roof rises up to a large concealed rooflight, while a square picture window frames a view back across the garden. Hinged along its top edge, the glass can be opened outwards to form a protective canopy for the adjoining window seat during rainstorms.

The Nest's functional requirements are handled by the broad expanses of deep waxed birch ply shelving, while a day bed can be folded down from the wall beneath the rooflight should the occasion arise for a quick nap. 'One door, one window, one rooflight, one bed, one shelf, one table - everything you need,' say the architects. Founded in 1999 by Dorte Mandrup-Poulsen, following a spell in the office of Henning Larsen, the studio is now best known for large urban planning, residential and commercial projects in and around Copenhagen.

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).