Cabin Fever is an international summer school and festival launched by the Hungarian architecture studio Hello Wood, known for its design-build approach and community-focused, sustainable projects. Since its founding in 2010, Hello Wood has become a global platform merging hands-on education with socially engaged architecture. The 2025 edition, powered by VELUX, explored how light and space shape human experience – placing presence, intimacy, and connection at the center of architecture. This dialogue with VELUX reflects a shared conviction: that the future of building lies in responsibility – in creating spaces with care, with awareness, and with light – offering meaningful alternatives in an overstimulated world.
From July 23 – 31, 2025, the festival took place in Česká Kamenice, Czech Republic, on the grounds of a former textile factory and wartime labor camp – a place that embodies both the weight of memory and the potential for transformation. Under the theme ‘Quality Time – Connection to Each Other’, participants were invited to explore how design can strengthen our relationships with each other and with the places we inhabit. Students and emerging designers from around the globe worked alongside acclaimed studios such as Arthur Mamou-Mani (UK), Geoffrey Eberle / Entropic (ES), Mjölk architekti (CZ), and Hello Wood (HU) to design and build cabins and temporary installations. Three winning proposals from an international open call for installations were also realized on site.
How Hello Wood arrived in Česká Kamenice
Hello Wood’s journey to Česká Kamenice began in Csóromfölde, a nearly abandoned rural site in Hungary. Once the grounds of a noble estate, the village was emptied during World War II and left to decay. Through their three-year-long Project Village programme, Hello Wood brought together students, professors, and architectural studios from around the world to explore how design and building could breathe new life into depopulated rural areas.
After similar international programmes in Argentina and San Francisco, the studio sought a new European location where their model could continue to evolve a place that could host not only physical structures, but also conversations about the deeper role of architecture in society. This vision found a natural ally in VELUX, whose architectural philosophy, centered on the interplay of space, light, and lived experience, and on architecture as a socially engaged practice.
Through a network of Czech architects previously involved in Project Village, particularly Mjölk architekti, who played a key role in building local connections, Hello Wood was introduced to Česká Kamenice. The town’s layered history, natural beauty, and local ambition for revitalization made it the ideal setting for this shared mission.
An open call for architects brought in new collaborators, united under a shared vision: a three-year programme in which Hello Wood returns each summer with an international team of students and professionals to co-create not just buildings, but lasting relationships between architecture, people, and the environment. This is not just a festival or a workshop – it is a growing ecosystem, rooted in cooperation, learning, and the belief that architecture can be a powerful social act.
Eclosion
Eclosion, designed by Dorottya Kiss and Matthew McArthur, invites you to connect to inner spaces and distant places. Like the warp and weft of woven fabric, this project recollects the complex histories of the site and interweaves them into a pavilion where people and place meet. The installation pulls inspiration from various layers of the site’s histories, textile craft, aerospace manufacturing, and the cocoon of the Meta menardi spider. Interwoven layers of natural and human history in one space. While you visit this site, you are constantly being woven through the fabric of space and time: you become part of the ever-changing fabric of the site, emerging transformed – an eclosion of new perspectives and shared memories.
The Chicken
This playful yet functional structure, designed by Mjölk architekti, reimagines one of the world’s most familiar birds as both a 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, designed by Entropic, 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. Designed by Arthur Mamou-Mani, 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.
LOOM
LOOM by Zak Underwood pays tribute to the site’s textile-making heritage, reimagining the mechanics of a loom in architectural form. Vertical timber columns and horizontal beams echo the warp and weft of woven fabric, while stretched textile threads create a raised platform for rest and reflection. Set on the grounds of a former factory, LOOM becomes both shelter and symbol – a tactile reminder of craft, memory, and transformation.
