Cabin class: we go into the wild at Wales’ first pop-up boutique retreat
By their very nature, themed resorts can be tricky propositions, but the unveiling of eight glamping cabins in Wales has us reconsidering our biases, and checking plane schedules.
Late last year, a consortium that includes Wales’ Tourism Product Innovation Fund and George + Tomas Architects, staged a global competition for the design of glamping units inspired by Welsh mythology, traditions and nature. Structurally, the brief called for ‘a high-quality, self-contained glamping accommodation unit to be developed to form a completely unique mobile hotel’.
The resulting eight cabins, collectively called Epic Retreats and Wales’ first pop-up boutique hotel, are being unveiled in June, a literally moveable accommodation that will spend the month in the foothills of southern Snowdonia, before relocating to the wild coastal paths of the Llyn Peninsula for the summer.
Clearly, the designers were able to indulge their fantasist streaks, not the least being Carwyn Lloyd Jones’s Dragon Eye in which zinc and metal shingles evoke scales, and Arthur’s Cave by Miller Kendrick Architects, the design an homage to the magical cave in which the Once and Future King once sought refuge.
The wildly differing design schemes not withstanding, each cabin shares a common DNY by way of a living area anchored by a wood burner, adjoining bathroom, and a bijoux hob, while communal activities are facilitated by way of a common room, BBQ pit and dining area.
INFORMATION
Epic Retreats will be in Snowdownia from 5 – 30 June, and Llyn Peninsula from 10 July – 11 September. For more information visit the Epic Retreats website
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Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.
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