Reflections Camp was an experiment in both natural and creative architectural design. From the three different reciprocal roofs including the wonderful bar to the ying yang fire place and finally the first earthbag structures in Turkey.

The camp was designed to be rustic and open to nature. The first structure I built was the kitchen I cut by hand a complete arch both in the front wall and the side wall. As well I created a wave on one side of the roof so it fell and rose from front to back. This work began the creative process at the camp.

I used massive pieces of wood that I carried 2 or 3 km from the waterfalls as natural statues. For years I collected olive tree branches fallen by storms and I used those branches extensively in the lower entrance and bar area.

Later when I discovered the reciprocal frame concept I began by experimenting with small natural branch systems and later on the towering bar. The bars wood columns weren’t reciprocally supporting but because I placed them in an angular fashion they matched well the reciprocal frame roof of the bar.

Toilet with the best view in the world

One of the best loved structures at Reflections is the shared bathroom. I sunk it into the earth at the edge of the property with a curved, stone retaining wall. Because the edge drops down severely to another land the view of the valley is superb. I built a wooden walkway leading to both the toilet and shower and left planting areas on both sides to create certainly one of the most relaxing bathrooms around.

First Earthbag Houses in Turkey

Because of a lack of space at the camp I decided to make use of the space underneath the deck. I had heard about Earthbag building and thought that a series of earth rooms would be a great compliment to an already naturally designed camp. After removing the old deck I laid out a design for 6 different rooms below but adjacent to the kitchen. Where two of the rooms would be, we dug out all the earth for all the rooms. For drainage we filled a trench with a French drain and gravel. As well, we started our wall system also inside the trench and also filled the first three rows with gravel. This helped to prevent moisture climbing up through the earth walls. From there it was heavy work using barbed wire between rows and filling thousands of bags of earth. Later we covered the walls with an earth/clay mix and colored lime as a finish. Incredibly strong and high thermal mass walls guests at the camp are always in awe… If you want to read more about earthbag houses you can look here.

Decks and Landscaping

As I love curves every deck was painstakingly curved and I even installed planting systems on top of them.