A minimalist, levitating home adds a touch of magic to a Russian forest

Deep in a Russian forest 200 km from Moscow, a structure resembling a steel pipe juts out of the green landscape.

The building, named Russian Quintessential, is a collaboration between designer Sergey Kuznetsov and building company KROST. Besides its tubular shape, the building’s most striking feature is a reflective cladding made of a stainless steel sheet. On one end of the house, a cylindrical window offers a generous view of the landscape, while the exterior acts as a mirror, allowing the avant-garde design to blend into its surroundings.

Inside, the 12-metre-long building features a bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom with sleek wood and metal finishings. To make the building appear like it is levitating, Kuznetsov and KROST employed shipbuilding techniques to craft a supporting structure that could sustain the building’s weight of 12 tonnes.

Russian Quintessential was created as one of the pavilions for Russia’s largest open air land art event, Archstoyanie Festival, that invites architects and designers to display their inventions every summer in a beautiful and remote national park in the Kaluga region. While this year’s iteration of the festival is over, the house will remain in the park, open to the public as a rental home.