Here's Your Chance to Build a Cabin

Reimagine community living with other designers and builders.

This summer, the annual Cabin Fever Summer School returns to the Czech Republic from July 23–31, 2025. Hosted by Hello Wood – a design-build group we’ve previously featured in our books – Cabin Fever offers a rare hands-on architectural learning experience in the former textile factory grounds of Česká Kamenice, nestled between forested hills and the sandstone cliffs of the Bohemian Switzerland National Park.

The iconic Pravčická Gate.

Why This Place Matters

Česká Kamenice is a small northern Czech town rich in craft and industrial heritage. The surrounding region, Bohemian Switzerland, is known for its fairytale-like rock formations, including the iconic Pravčická Gate, the largest natural sandstone arch in Europe. This dramatic natural setting makes it an inspiring backdrop for a festival rooted in rethinking how we live with each other and with nature.

Once home to textile production and craft industries, the factory site in Česká Kamenice has become an open canvas for architectural experimentation. What better way to breathe new life into this post-industrial site than by building timber structures with your own hands?

What You’ll Experience

• Design + Build Workshops

  Work alongside leading architects such as Arthur Mamou-Mani (designer of Burning Man’s Temple Galaxia), Geoffrey Eberle (formerly of BIG), Mjölk architekti (celebrated Czech design studio), and Hello Wood themselves.

  You’ll learn by doing—sawing, assembling, and raising real timber structures on-site.

• Your Own Design Realized

  For those looking to take the lead, Cabin Fever invites submissions for temporary structures like saunas, gathering spaces, or scenic viewpoints. Three proposals will be selected and built by your team during the festival.

• Evenings of Connection

  Expect design talks, workshops, bonfires, and a community of creative minds from across the globe—making this not just a project, but a memory that stays with you.

Why It’s Relevant for Cabin Builders at Home

Cabin Fever demonstrates that cabins are more than shelter—they are social catalysts. What you build reflects how you live, gather, and slow down. The 2025 theme, Quality Time – Connection to Each Other, challenges you to consider your own spaces:

• Are you building for connection, not isolation?

• Are you making room for shared experiences, not just privacy?

• Are you designing with nature, not against it?

The structures built here often inspire ideas that cabin builders can apply back home: communal fire pits, shared saunas, porches that invite conversation, or window placements that frame nature rather than shut it out.

Apply Now

If you’re an architect, designer, or hands-on learner ready to turn ideas into timber, applications are open until May 18, 2025. You can apply as:

• An individual participant,

• A team ready to lead a build,

• Or a designer submitting a temporary installation idea.

Please find the open call, registration form and more info on the official site.