Stay in an architect-designed cabin before you commission one
By Pete Markos, RIBA Chartered Architect and host of the Monocoque Cabin. Published 22 September 2026.
If you are considering a holiday cabin for your own land, spend a night in a small building before deciding what yours needs. A photograph tells you very little about making breakfast while someone else gets dressed, or where wet coats go when you come back from a walk.
I designed and built the Monocoque Cabin in Shropshire with friends in 2023, and I operate it as a holiday let. It is a place to stay and a useful starting point for a conversation about your own project. Here is what I would pay attention to during a visit.
Use the cabin as a guest
Bring an overnight bag and unpack it. Put your shoes where you would naturally leave them. Make a meal. Move around the bed when someone is sitting at the table. These ordinary actions tell you more about a compact layout than a floor area on a brochure.
At the Monocoque Cabin, curved plywood ribs remain visible inside and the furniture is built around the space. Look at how those decisions affect movement and storage. A smaller building only works if its usable space works.
Look at the relationship with the site
Our cabin sits beside Tyrley Locks on the Shropshire Union Canal. The towpath passes the garden, so a walk can start without getting back in the car. That relationship is part of the stay.
For your own site, consider where guests would arrive, what they would see from the bed and where they would sit outside. Walk the route from parking to the entrance. Think about carrying luggage in rain as well as arriving on a sunny afternoon. The right cabin for one plot may need a different arrangement on another.
Check the work behind each stay
A holiday-let cabin has to be cleaned and maintained between bookings. Look at access around the bed, the kitchen worktop and the bathroom. Consider where clean linen would be stored and how someone would reach the parts that need servicing.
Make a note of anything you find awkward as a guest. Then read that note as the person who would own and operate the building. A detail that looks tidy in a photograph still has to work during changeover.
Be specific about luxury and environmental aims
If your brief says “luxury cabin”, write down what you mean. That might be a good sleeping space, privacy from neighbouring plots or a view you can enjoy from indoors. Those choices should guide the design and the budget.
The same applies to an “eco cabin”. Ask about insulation, heating demand, material sourcing and repair. A timber exterior alone does not answer those questions. Record the evidence you would want from a designer or supplier, rather than choosing by the label.
The original Monocoque Cabin and Monocoque II
The cabin you can book here is the original Monocoque Cabin at Tyrley Locks, near Market Drayton. Monocoque II is a separate, second-generation design. See the Monocoque II project on RIBA's Find an Architect for that project's description.
For the original cabin's design and operation, read the Monocoque Cabin project at Markos Design Workshop. If you are considering your own holiday-let cabin, bring a short brief and photographs of the site to the conversation.
Book a stay in the original Monocoque Cabin, or contact me about visiting with a project in mind.