Cabin Fever is Hello Wood’s annual design-build summer school and festival, where students and young designers learn by making full-scale architecture together. In 2025 (powered by VELUX), it ran from 23–31 July 2025 in Česká Kamenice, Czechia, on the grounds of a former textile factory and wartime labor camp, using cabins and installations to explore “Quality Time – Connection to Each Other” and how light and space shape human experience.
Wood is presented as the festival’s essential medium: workable enough for rapid, collective construction, yet expressive enough to carry memory, atmosphere, and craft—translating ideas about intimacy and connection into tactile structures.
Hello Wood’s hands-on method depends on a material that can be cut, joined, and revised on site; the project credits foreground carpentry roles alongside architectural ones, underscoring wood as making as much as design. Wood also supports the projects’ social and environmental stance: temporary timber structures can be assembled with light infrastructure, sit gently in forest clearings, and act as careful, community-minded interventions rather than permanent impositions. Just as importantly, wood invites touch and smell, turning “quality time” into a sensory experience rather than an abstract theme.
The installations use wood’s warmth and structural logic to tell stories. “The Splinter” borrows the imagery of a broken piece of wood—sharp outside, inviting within—to balance solitude and togetherness. “Živa” is a pod whose warm interior becomes a classroom in the trees, making timber a container for learning and growth. “LOOM” references the site’s textile heritage through vertical timber columns and horizontal beams that echo warp and weft, turning wood into a structural metaphor for weaving histories into shared space. Across the festival, wood is not merely a sustainability tag; it enables fast making, makes small spaces feel intimate, and links people, place, and time.
Learn more about this innovative educational experience: https://www.archdaily.com/1038483/cabin-fever-2025-hello-wood
A few of our favorites:
The Chicken — This playful yet functional structure reimagines one of the world’s most familiar birds as both shelter and observation point. Designed to reflect the life of the forest’s birds, it invites visitors to lie back inside its chicken-shaped neck, using an internal mirror to watch the canopy and nesting birds in comfort. The moss-covered exterior doubles as a living habitat for insects and birds, merging architecture with nature. Its whimsical form is a reminder that design is not only about straight lines — it can also bring joy, curiosity, and a deeper connection to the world around us.
The Splinter — Like a piece of wood that’s broken off from the forest itself, this slender, vertical cabin stands sharp and distinct among the treetop canopies. From the outside, it shows a bold, spiky character—unique and striking against the natural backdrop. But step inside, and it reveals a warm, inviting space designed to bring people together, where natural materials and cozy design create the perfect setting for quality time. On and above the ground, this sheltered retreat balances solitude and connection, ruggedness and comfort, offering a place to unwind, share stories, and truly connect with both nature and each other.
Živa — Like a seed stirring beneath the forest floor, Živa awakens as a living pod where nature and learning meet. Its intricate geometric form mirrors the balance and harmony found in the wild, while its mossy surroundings invite quiet reflection. Step inside, and the space transforms into a classroom in the trees — a warm, collaborative haven where ideas take root. Živa is more than shelter; it’s a shared act of creation, a symbol of growth, and a place where people, craft, and nature flourish together.
Cite: “Cabin Fever 2025 Installations / Hello Wood” 07 Feb 2026. ArchDaily. Accessed 2 Mar 2026. <https://www.archdaily.com/1038483/cabin-fever-2025-hello-wood> ISSN 0719-8884
