This minivan-inspired cabin features a round roof and an open-air interior to allow increased interaction with the environment!

Imminent Studio and Grafito Design Studio have teamed up to create Dwelling Pod or D-Pod for short, a mono-volume residence inspired by the shape and form of a minivan and the functionality of modernism. While D-Pod hovers somewhere above the architectural category of ‘cabin,’ its design and aesthetic follow today’s trend of prefabricated ‘cabins in the woods.’

Constructed from concrete, glass, and metallic material, D-Pod is “based on the concept of lightness,” as Grafito Design Studio puts it, “where the separation of the ground is sought and lifted; its internal functional modules also use this concept of being ‘separated’ from the floor and ceiling.” In fact, D-Pod’s mono-volume nature makes it so that walls or dividers are unnecessary. Aiming to create an interior of spatial fluidity, the ‘rooms’ inside D-Pod flow into one another without the added impediment of walls or physical boundaries.

With transparent, floor-to-ceiling walls enclosing the entirety of D-Pod, the dwelling’s interior expands the visual space, dissolving D-Pod’s only walls into the environment that surrounds it. Conceptualized in the middle of a dense forest and mounted on top of a solid rock formation, D-Pod’s spatial fluidity, transparent walls, and air of modernism allow the structure to blend right into its surroundings.

Based on the form and shape of automobiles, D-Pod’s curved edges and mono-volume frame were inspired by the structure of minivans. While the rounded corners provide D-Pod with a distinguishable and appealing frame, its flat surfaces, roof, and floor fill D-Pod out with functionality and stability. Measuring 170m2, D-Pod currently stands as a concept, but everything from the pod’s inside to its outside has been planned for future developments.

Designers: Imminent Studio and Grafito Design Studio

With transparent, floor-to-ceiling walls, D-Pod blends right into its surroundings.

Glass panels can slide open and close to either entirely open up D-Pod to the outside or enclose it with transparent walls.

Inside, the lack of walls and dividers give D-Pod a mono-volume feel, similar to that found in a minivan.

With a wooden roof and transparent walls, D-pod is discreet in nature.

D-Pod is made of concrete, glass, and metal.

Come night, D-Pod shines like a lantern.