Tag Archives: Marc Thorpe

This tranquil floating pavilion functions as a meditation and yoga retreat

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Marc Thorpe Design created the Crystal Lake Pavilion – a stunning concept for the West Catskills region of New York. It is surrounded by a 497-acre wild forest which is filled with a thirty-two-acre man-made lake, wetland areas, a beaver pond, streams, and seeps. The area holds a plethora of natural beauty, including hundreds of species of flowers, trees, plants, insects, and wildlife. “The lake shore and surrounding moist woodland provide habitats for trilliums, wild leeks, Jack-in-the-pulpits, and Dutchman’s britches,” said Marc Thorpe.

Designer: Marc Thorpe

The beautiful floating pavilion is designed to be utilized for meditation and yoga classes, as well as group therapy. The Crystal Lake Pavilion can be accessed only by boat, in an attempt to honor the remote natural context of the site. The structure has been wrapped in transparent glass skin, to allow the beauty of the surroundings to truly shine through. The pavilion has been constructed using a traditional King Post timber frame.

The structure consists of heavy timber elements that have all been connected together using lap joints, pegged mortise, and tenon joints. The imposing and sloping roof of the pavilion will be formed using light steel connections, and a standing seam steel roof. The focal point of the pavilion is the central post which is held by a single concrete pier nestled in the lake bed. The triangular roof mirrors the lake’s surface intricately, which gives the impression that the pavilion is weightless and floating effortlessly on the lake. It looks as if the pavilion is hovering above the water!

The optical illusion provided by the pavilion makes it look like an ethereal structure floating above the water. In a time, where structures are heavy, hardy, and concrete-ridden, the Crystal Lake Pavilion is a light free-flowing structure that serves as an oasis on the lake. It serves as a cozy and zen-like space to relax, regroup, and calm down our frantic and hectic minds. It is an excellent location to meditate and practice yoga while being surrounded by the best of what nature has to offer. The location of the pavilion is remote, but that is precisely the USP of the structure.

The post This tranquil floating pavilion functions as a meditation and yoga retreat first appeared on Yanko Design.

This off-grid cabin is a solar-powered, uses locally sourced timber and features a triangular roofline!

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Inspired by the local area’s shingled roofs and facades, Thorpe clad Canton House’s trio of cabins, from top to bottom in blackened, locally sourced timber.

Hotels are designed to immerse us in unfamiliar worlds. Bringing us to tropical coastlines and jagged cliff sides, hotels are meant to enhance the local area’s best-known features. Marc Thorpe, architect, and designer extraordinaire, recently unveiled his design for Canton House, a cluster of off-grid cabin hotels in the forest of Romania’s Carpathian Mountains that are built from locally harvested timber and inspired by the surrounding area’s vernacular architecture.

In Romania, rural towers and spires of religious centers are often defined by their fully-shingled wooden construction. Inspired by the local area’s shingled roofs and facades, Thorpe clad Canton House’s trio of cabins, from top to bottom in blackened, locally sourced timber, wrapping the exterior facades in uniform wooden shingles. The triangular roof stems from Canton House’s rectangular front facade.

From the front, Canton House appears as a simple, rectangular cabin framed with wooden shingles. Whereas from the side, a triangular roof gives Canton House some height and a dramatic facade. Uniform in design, the Canton House comes outfitted with a kitchenette, bathroom, bedroom, utility closet, and storage rooms finished in plywood. Evoking the spire’s reach for the high heavens, Thorpe built each cabin with an elongated triangular roof that gradually pitches upward from the cabin’s rectangular side facade. Marc Thorpe describes the cabin’s triangular profile, “The cabins are grounded into the terrain with their low horizontal profile to pronounce themselves with a sharp, vertical, [and] triangulated roofline.”

The sharp vertically pitched roof contrasts nicely with the rough and rugged terrain of the Carpathian Mountains. Careful not to disrupt the area’s wooded landscape and to maintain the cabin’s initial off-grid aspirations, Marc Thorpe equipped each cabin hotel with a solar kit and roof to ensure the cabin has plenty of renewable energy available for power. Each solar kit comes with a 1800W solar generator to provide backup power for the four 100W 12V mono solar panels that line the cabins’ roofs. Inside, guests enjoy a minimal interior that’s lined and finished in plywood. Built as supplementary retreats for guests of the area’s main hotel, Tara Luanei, Canton House offers a respite in nature that’s unique to the Carpathian Mountains.

Designer: Marc Thorpe Design