Modern Cabins: Return to the Wild

Dev founded DDAA (Dev Desai Architects and Associates) in 2020, an offshoot from a firm that specialises in residential villas and interiors. His formative development as an architect was under the guidance of Pritzker Laureate Toyo Ito and associates (Japan) and Vo Trong Nghia Architects (Vietnam). Both continue to have a strong influence on his work. As a young and dynamic studio, DDAA constantly challenges the threshold of architectural design through a contemporary, unique language. One of the initial projects under DDAA was the design development of a tiny cabin on a coffee estate, as an alternative way of living during the pandemic. To minimise the ecological impact, the cabin was prefabricated and assembled within 4 weeks on-site. What started as a humble architectural project has now evolved into a series of prefabricated cabin designs and an eco-resort, where 15 of such cabins will be built on the estate. Desai also founded Re-Build, a research venture that addresses the challenges in conventional prefab, and merges the power of digital fabrication to amortise the cost of construction, reduce the dependence on manual labour, eliminate the need for heavy machinery, and reduce the time for assembly to a few days. The connection with nature and the desire to push the boundaries of architecture and construction are the guiding principles behind his work.