When you say “prefabricated home,” you think utilitarian, perhaps even inelegant, reduced to the bare functionality, cheap, or lacking personality. If any or all of these just popped into your mind, the ANNA Stay cabin would like a word.
The ANNA Stay is, hands down, one of the most stylish and surprising prefabricated homes around right now. And we don't say that lightly, especially given the fierce competition in this segment of the market. The ANNA is versatile and transformable, sustainable and with full off-grid capabilities, with all-season functionality, and very elegant, and offers an unmatched living experience due to the fact that it can slide open to the exterior. The ANNA cabin is the perfect example to bring down those prefab home misconceptions, and perhaps even set a new trend for sustainable living.
Just recently, the ANNA Stay cabin received an upgrade, with the newer model going officially by ANNA Stay 2.0. It is currently available for pre-order in Europe and the U.S., with the first deliveries estimated for later this year. Only 20 units in total of this model will be produced, so it’s what you might call a rarity as well.
The ANNA story goes all the way back to 2016, when a young Dutch designer by the name of Caspar Schols, who hadn’t even started his studies in architecture design yet, built a sort of shed for his mother – named Anna, of course. He called that shed the Garden House, and it was designed with the express purpose of creating a personal space for his mother in which she could relax, create, entertain, and, if need be, sleep over. That personal space also had to offer something no real house could: a sense of real immersion in the surrounding environment, which went beyond the ability to crack open one or two windows.
Photo: Cabin Anna
Schols came up with the idea to create a platform for the living space, cladding it in two different movable layers broken down in the middle, a glass frame and a wooden exterior layer, and four moving parts in total. Both these layers sat on runners, which meant that you could move any or all of the four parts in various positions, thus reconfiguring the interior – but, most importantly, modifying the way the interior interacted with the outside world.
In short, as the first video available at the bottom of the page shows, Schols created a house that you could open up completely to the exterior, or only partially. Depending on weather conditions, you could opt to have it turned into a greenhouse of sorts, using just the glass layer, or use it as a proper home with solid, non-see-through, or non-existent walls. The ANNA Origin was born from this Garden House, and it became an international celebrity once it was featured in several prestigious architecture and design publications.
The ANNA Stay was introduced in 2020 as a solution that could be marketed to customers looking for the same kind of experience. ANNA Meet is the office slash work variant, which is announced, but is not yet available. As of the moment of press, there are a couple of ANNA Stay cabins in The Netherlands, located in wildlife reservations to better understand – and appreciate – their appeal.
The ANNA Stay 2.0 is an upgrade over the original model, also offered for sale. It brings to the table certain creature comforts that render it perfectly viable for long-term use, including a full bathroom and a small but fully-equipped kitchen, a more streamlined interior design, and, more spectacularly, in-floor hidden storage. Designed for a family of two adults and two children, or three adults, it hides a bathtub in the floor, as well as one or two full king-size beds, and features another bed in the loft.
Photo: Cabin Anna
Both exterior layers are still on runners, but are now unlocked by levers and operated manually. The braking system is inspired by those on Dutch bicycles. The house is fully-insulated and both frameworks are airtight, so ANNA remains just as comfortable in colder weather as it’s during the summer, with guests protected from the wind, rain, and dust. That said, Schols notes that housing insulation values don’t apply in the same way with the ANNA as they do with a regular house, but he promises that “you won’t feel cold.”
The ANNA comes with a wood-burning stove, but can be equipped with in-floor heating if so desired. It’s designed for moderate climates with temperatures between -5°C (23°F) and 35°C (95°F), but it’s been tested for heavy coastal winds and heavy snow. As such, Schols says it can be used as a permanent residence by those looking to downsize in style, in the middle of nature.
The ANNA is a prefab house by all intents and purposes, so assembly on-site takes little time, compared to a conventional house. There is no need for a cement foundation since it sits on a screw foundation with steel piles that can be removed for relocation with zero traces left behind. The house itself is very lightweight, so it can be flat-packed in the eventuality the owner wishes to relocate.
It can be hooked to the grid or set up as a self-sufficient unit, in which case it will have solar power, a fire-heated boiler, and a wastewater management system. For now, the latter option is only available for The Netherlands, but the plan is to work towards offering this option elsewhere in Europe and then the U.S.; also here, units can be delivered as turnkey, thanks to partnerships across the country with premium suppliers. Depending on configuration and options, assembly takes two weeks, tops, while the actual construction of the house won’t exceed three months.
Photo: Cabin Anna
Speaking of construction, all materials used are either eco-friendly or sustainably sourced. The exterior frame is sustainable Accoya wood, while the interior is birch plywood, with steel and aluminum, and HR+ double glazing for the first movable frame. The two sliding frames consist of parts made on CNC machines and 3D printers, enabling a quick delivery timeline and minimizing waste.
Back in 2020, when the commercial version of the ANNA Stay cabin was introduced, it came with a reported price tag of €87,000 (approximately $95,000, but at the current exchange rate), not including taxes, assembly, and finishes. The plan was to announce pricing for the ANNA Stay 2.0 at the end of last year, but, as far as we can tell, that’s yet to happen.
Either way, that reported amount is enough to tell you that, because this prefab is unlike any other out there, it will be priced to match.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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