Introducing The Common Cabin
A new open source design for simple shelter, and source of space for community organisations.
“Our intention with this design is that it can be built by anyone, stand for many years, and if need be, be taken down in just a day to be rebuilt elsewhere, or even repurposed as a different type of building”
— Harrison Gardner
The concept for the Common Cabin was to create a simple, achievable, replicable building that can be taught on our Build School course, whilst creating a versatile design that can be easily constructed by a novice builder.
To date, more than 500 people have learned to build the Common Cabin on our 5 day Build School programme. Each participant experiences what it feels like to create a real building, supported by classroom sessions on the basics of construction, practical skill development and hands-on practice. Our research shows that people leave twice as confident in their ability to complete a building project themselves, which many have gone on to do.
“With so many buildings these days ending up in landfill, we’re hoping the design can start a conversation about how circularity can be simply incorporated into everyday building and DIY construction.”
— Harrison Gardner
The Common Cabin was created by our co-founder and creator of Build School, Harrison Gardner, with the plans now openly available.
The design fits within the planning exempt 25m2 garden studio guidelines whilst maximising outdoor covered space, head height and natural light. It is modular by design, so that the wall components can be rearranged or the building made longer if desired.
It is totally deconstructable and if removed from use or site will leave no trace behind. Simplicity is the goal here, because creating shelter does not need to be complicated. The bulk of the cabin is made up of three repeated components which easily bolt together to form the shell structure of The Common Cabin.
The design is available for open source use and can be accessed through the link below.
We built a model Common Cabin at The Common Knowledge Centre in 2023 as additional teaching space, incorporating natural insulations such as hemp flax fibre, sheeps wool insulation as well as wood fibre rigid board insulation.
The building is taped and sealed and has a heat recovery unit installed to ensure sufficient airflow and energy conservation. The external wood of the building is treated using the Japanese Yaki-Sugi technique and sealed with linseed oil while the decking and unique external cladding are made of recycled waste PVC. To bring the model Common Cabin to this point of completion as a beautiful, very well insulated office space we used materials that would cost approximately €16,000.
The Common Cabin design can be easily adapted for a range of uses.
Learn to build a Common Cabin and other structures at our 5 day Build School - full upcoming listings here
Collaborators & Supporters
Common Knowledge is deeply grateful for the support of its partners in bringing the prototype Common Cabin to life. The natural and sustainable materials were generously supplied free of charge by Ecological Building Solutions in Ireland. The screw pile foundations were generously supplied free of charge by FMF Systems. Construction materials were sourced from Cullinans Hardware locally, while the unique recycled PVC external cladding was sourced from Pretty Plastics in the Netherlands.
