BIG has shared details about their latest collaboration with British clothing company Vollebak to design a self-sufficient, off-grid island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Named after the brand, the 11-acre Vollebak Island is intended to be fully powered by carbon-neutral energy. 

The island site centers around the 6,426-square-foot Earth House, a village-like series of nine interconnected buildings clustered under a man-made hill, and the 947-square-foot Wood House, a standalone garden suite structure on the island’s eastern shoreline. 

Each space on the island is made from material tailored for their specific uses, including stacked seaweed, compacted earth, hemp, glass brick, and locally-sourced stone. The island will be powered through a combination of offshore wind, geothermal energy, and solar power, with the energy stored in Tesla power walls.

Earth House will serve as a gateway to the island. Its permeable layout will create various open spaces for socializing and allowing nature to intertwine with architecture. The structure’s living and dining room, distinguished by a nearly 20-foot Viking fire pit, will be made entirely of weather-resistant and naturally insulating thatch. The house includes four bedrooms made of fire retardant hempcrete, 3D printed concrete, or naturally occurring boulder. 

Additionally, there will be a Japanese-style bathhouse with soaking tubs cut from the stone bedrock and a sunken hempcrete stargazing room and meditation space. 

There will also be a greenhouse made entirely of glass brick that will grow food for the island, along with a boat house that honors a local tradition of using regenerative seaweed as insulation. The island’s generated energy will be stored in a building with a solar roof and submarine door. Roofs across the island will incorporate shrubs and other flora to reduce storm-water runoff.

The Wood House will complement the Earth House with a two-bedroom, two-bathroom residence. Its exterior is made entirely of wood from the island. The house’s façade will be able to open and close toward the seaside. 

“For Vollebak Island, we have imagined the rooms as a manmade mount of individual volumes rising out of the ground and a separate outpost at the edge of the breaking waves,” Bjarke Ingels shared. 

According to the development team, Vollebak Island serves as a proof of concept to show how a self-sufficient and carbon-neutral model for design and living can be scaled to villages, towns, cities, and even countries. 

The island is set to be auctioned as part of Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions’ Exceptional Global Properties sale in New York on June 14th.