Suburban Tipi

This "suburban tipi" was designed and installed by John Paananen at Cranbrook Academy in Michigan. The idea? To take the fused nomadic home designs of the yurt, tipi, and igloo and slip the straitjacket of suburban values, materials, and methods of construction over them. It looks pretty amazing both inside and out, especially...

...when illuminated at night.

It was inspired by a summer vacation spent on some land with a yurt and tipi on it in the high desert of Colorado in between John's first and second year at Cranbrook. John says, All I did was research on the immediate structures before me and read books that I had ordered regarding portable architecture, mobile housing and nomadic lifestyles.

Indoors it has a concrete firepit, plastic laminate flooring, carpet tiles, furniture and a large scale photo mural. The outer shell uses the traditional "suburban" siding over a timber construction.

More info: John Paananen

Comments (11)

Before anyone freaks out....

"tipi" and "teepee" are both correct.

eh. for something that's "slipping the suburban straightjacket", the furniture choices are very pedestrian. and that wall photo screams 'suburban rec room'. the whole project looks like it came out of the back of the DWR catalog, right next to the Airstream trailor and the Kithaus.

I love it, and the Cranbrook campus is the perfect backdrop for such a project, since it's an incredible oasis in the middle of a snooty suburb. Per the "pedestrian" furniture comment, the Eames chairs make sense as an homage to Charles and Ray Eames [Charles having taught at Cranbrook, Ray having studied there, and the two having met on campus]. I see the photo mural as a tongue-in-cheek design statement -- yes, a nod to the "suburban rec room." Well done!

I think I'll stick to my urban straightjacket. This thing is ugly.

Looks more like a wigwam to me, but yet even more like a Goff house built with coal walls and from quonset hut ribs...

I think it's fun. I'd totally do it. Who hasn't fantasized about a grownup club house in their own backyard?

Well, I wouldn't be happy there as a permanent home, but as a vacation cabin it would be fun. (And somehow I got the impression that the pedestrian carpet tiles and flooring and mural, etc. were meant as a deliberate contrast to the nomadic form -- an artistic joke.) No?

Cranbrook. If reincarnation is real, and the time line linear, maybe someday. Loves that, above.

So refreshing. Thanks very much for this post! Hope to see more weird stuff get pulled off so stylishly.

Amazing. It's like the ultimate fort for a grown-up kid.

Ma! I'm busy in my yurtipigloo!