‘Off the Grid’ explores remote but refined homes in North America

Henry Island Residence, Washington State by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, cover of Off the Grid, Dominic Bradbury, Thames & Hudson.

Acclaimed author Dominic Bradbury has turned his practiced eye to one of the most intriguing of all domestic design categories – the cabin. However, Off the Grid: Houses for Escape Across North America (Thames & Hudson) is no paean to hairshirt austerity or rudimentary residences. Instead, this is a lavish collection of houses designed to maximise their privileged position across a variety of North American wildernesses, from forests to far-off coastlines, deserts, hills and dunes. 

Off the Grid homes in North America

Folly, Joshua Tree National Park, California by Cohesion Studio (Image credit: Sam Frost)

The result is a portfolio of 42 contemporary projects, designed by foreign firms as well as North American architects from across the continent. Divided into three broad categories (Countryside & Forest, Waterside & Coast, and Hillside & Mountain), the only real unifying factor is location; these are houses without access to traditional services or facilities, and therefore have a special and intense relationship with their surroundings. 

Off-Grid Guest House, California by Anacapa Architecture and Willson Design (Image credit: Erin Feinblatt)

This factor is a matter of necessity, not just a pose, and although solar arrays and wells are featured extensively, some of the projects are far more experimental and grungy, ranging from a cabin for surfers to the High Plains Prototype, built by Urs Peter Flueckinger and Texas Tech University, and the compact Klein A45 cabin by BIG and Søren Rose.

Thatch House, Eleuthera, Bahamas by Brillhart Architecture (Image credit: Brillhart Architecture)

As a result, scale also varies widely, from the aforementioned one-room cabins to fully equipped second homes with guest houses and pools. The book includes work from a wide range of architects, including established studios like Bjarke Ingels’s BIG, IwamotoScott Architecture, Eggleston Farkas, KieranTimberlake, Olson Kundig and Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, to smaller, lesser-known practices.

Lakeside Chalet, Quebec, Canada by Atelier Schwimmer (Image credit: Adrien Williams)

Off the Grid serves as both an inspirational manual for new ways to live sympathetically with nature, and yet another way for the perpetually inquisitive to see how others live.

Fogo Island Shed, Newfoundland by Saunders Architecture (also behind the Fogo Island Inn) (Image credit: Bent René Synnevåg)

Off the Grid: Houses for Escape Across North America, Dominic Bradbury, Thames & Hudson, £35 / $45, ThamesandHudsonUSA.com, also available from Amazon and Waterstones

Gambier House, British Columbia, Canada, by Office of McFarlane Biggar (Image credit: Jean-Philippe Delage)