Thank God for Sweden and Swedish forests. They can be as gnarly as Canada’s in the early summer. You need constant protection and refuge from the bugs. But if you have an adequate supply of netting and a comfortable cabin, building a small dream nest in the forest is a doable thing. Or if you live in a desert area or on a river, you can also do these just fine.

Another name for tiny home?

Now that we are isolating from each other it might be time to think about gearing down a bit and building a new future reality.

Cabin Porn’s founder Zach Klein built a small community for his high-tech and media friends in Upstate New York that they call Beaver Brook. Check them out. They are idealistic in their cooking, building, and DIY approach. They had the call of the wild.

If you are renting in a big city or stuck with a mortgage, I am sure you have heard the call of the wild. Now might be the time to start building a nook in the woods, and I have the perfect plan for you. I was searching for a perfect and low cost A frame cabin blueprint for years. Then I saw the lifestyle and cabins of the folks at Stedsans in the Woods in Sweden. They run a forest to table restaurant and getaway deep in the woods.

I love the off centered, non conforming, off centered placement of the panels and the frame of their cabin. This gives it a “super human” in the woods feeling, that I can only compare to a revered Japanese ceramic tea cup used in a tea ceremony. It just gives you that feeling of perfect harmony in all its off centeredness.

I have a property in Canada, some 200 acres of thick and intelligent forest and although there is an old farmhouse on it, I have been dreaming about building a smaller cabin, like the one I found at Mette’s Swedish forest retreat.

Stedsans In The Woods is built by couple Mette Helbæk and Flemming Hansen, who sold their Copenhagen home and rooftop restaurant, Stedsans ØsterGRO (Stedsans in the Woods), and moved their family just across the water to an 18-acre plot of forest beside Lake Halla in West Sweden.

The focus of Stedsans ØsterGRO is to make guest experience hyperlocal fresh ingredients and simplified forest cooking. Visitors there find an idyllic, food-centred experience. Kickstarter helped make it happen. 

Beyond the food one of the big attractions at Stedsans is the floating sauna. That’s what first found me on Instagram. I was looking for simple A frame cabins for building a writing retreat and everything they did at Stedsans in the Woods caught my attention and made me say, wow: I want to be there. For isolation, and maybe even forever? 

In Swedish Stedsans means “a sense of location” and at their retreat guests eat in tents and sleep in simple A frame cabins and tents under the stars. 

Among the activities you can do there is foraging expeditions. Find mushrooms like gigantic ceps (get our forest mushroom vegan cookie recipe here) and taste the food from their small permaculture farm, which includes a healthy insect hotel and a range of medicinal plants.

Chefs prepare you food from what you see, with meat roasting on the fire, or herbs ground in a mortar and pestle.

We all need a lot more going back to the roots right now. Don’t you feel it too?

::Stedsans in the Woods

The post Stedsans A Frame cabin to isolate now, possibly forever? appeared first on Green Prophet.

This new eco-resort in the Fayoum Oasis offers tourists and locals respite from Egypt’s ongoing chaos.

Without the steady influx of tourists and constant political trouble, Egyptians are wondering when their lives will ever return to normal. But the folks at El Mandara eco-resort in Fayoum promise that visitors to their new facility will experience the “real” Egypt and become re-acquainted with their inner selves. Sitting astride Lake Qarun in the Fayoum Oasis just one hour and fifteen minutes drive from Cairo, this tranquil eco-haven was built with environmentally-friendly building materials and pays deep respect to its incredible natural surroundings.

We learned about Egypt’s latest eco-lodge from Urban Peek, who are friendly with the owners.

They explain that “the mentality of the resort is to represent simplicity, connecting with the beauty of nature, and enjoying silence away from the fast pace of day-to-day city life.”

To this end, the resort, which was previously a series of rundown buildings, was renovated using local, sustainable building materials including mud bricks (a la Hassan Fathy) and palm fronds that provide shading from the relentless desert sun.

Room sizes in this private resort range from 29m2 to 100m2. There are seven suites and three rooms, all enclosed for maximum privacy, and each of them has wonderful views of the nearby lake.

The project grew up in a matter of months once a group of friends decided to convert deserted huts into an eco-friendly timeshare that doubles as affordable lodgings. Entertainment options are decidedly non-digital, according to Urban Peek. Instead, visitors have access to a pool table and an inviting lake, as well as numerous opportunities to lounge about and enjoy the peace and quiet.

More active travelers can visit the nearby Hawara archaeological site and Wadi Rayan – Egypt’s largest waterfalls. Or they can try their hand at fishing, flying kites, playing beach volley, or bird watching.

El Mandara serves up traditional Egyptian cuisine, including locally-sourced fish, feteer and 3asal – all in an incomparable environment that will make returning to the bustle of every day life pretty darn difficult.

Egypt may not be ready to embrace eco-tourism en masse, since the former method of trucking in bus loads of tourists proved too profitable to let it slide completely, but we have seen a very steady rise in more sustainable options for tourists who want to have a positive impact on the country. El Mandara – which means Guest House – is great for foreigners and locals too!

These images were taken from the El Mandara Facebook page; for more professional imagery, please visit Urban Peek’s sponsored post.

:: Urban Peek

More on Eco-Tourism in Egypt:

Is Troubled Egypt Ripe Enough for Eco-Tourism?

Romantic Desert Lodge in Egypt Offers Fresh Eggs and Sanity

Tourists Bust Egyptian Restaurants Serving Endangered Species

The post New El Mandara Eco-Haven Pops up in Fayoum, Egypt appeared first on Green Prophet.