Two Friends Started This Prefab Company Where the Cabins Come on Wheels

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Dylan Woock, the founder and CEO of Bivvi, grew up under a blanket of pines in the Pacific Northwest. That’s also where he met his longtime friend Kyle Robeson, the partner and COO of Bivvi; the two shared a deep appreciation for the rugged beauty and outdoor activities that beckoned them from their homes in Central Oregon. In 2019, they had the idea to build a cabin inspired by the state’s familiar sites—"the backcountry huts, fire towers, and yurts," Woock says—and that spark led to months of research. Then the pandemic hit.

"With more time on our hands, we decided to launch Bivvi in 2020," Woock continues. "We began prototyping the first cabin in our driveway in Portland, which led to our first A-frame." This year, the company unveiled the Base Camp, which has that famed letter’s structure but includes a wider range of features than its previous design. "So far, we’ve sold them to private landowners and campground resorts," Woock says.

Read on to learn more about this clever cabin and the two men behind it, who hope to make the wide open spaces they hold dear a little more accessible to like-minded adventurers.

What’s the most exciting project you’ve realized to date?

Our most extreme and exciting projects has been sending a cabin all the way down to a client who owns several acres outside Big Bend National Park in Western Texas. We developed a totally off-grid solution for the client, who will use a water cistern as well as solar power to supplement their Base Camp cabin.

What does your base model cost and what does that pricing include?

Our Base Camp cabin starts at $33,000, and this is for a fully finished, stick-built cabin. We use 4x6 premium-grade and exposed Douglas fir rafters, tongue-and-groove pine decking, plywood, and framing lumber on a trailer with a 50 amp electrical service, an interior LED triangle cove light, and an exterior LED light. There’s also white oak flooring, premium tongue-and-groove pine on the interior, and Sierra Pacific aluminum-faced wood windows and doors. Everything is fully insulated under a clip-lock, factory-painted metal roof and trim. The cabin measures about 13-feet tall, 18-feet long (including the trailer tongue) and a little over eight feet wide, and is 120 square feet.

The Base Camp is prefabricated in our shop directly on a black-painted, dual-axle trailer chassis that acts as a subfloor and a insulation layer with rigid foam. We build each cabin to order and customize it based on clients needs and wishes. We source all of our materials from American companies, too.

What qualities make your prefab stand apart from the rest?

The most unique quality of the Base Camp is the trailer. Given that its structure is on a trailer, we are able to eliminate costly on-site delivery and construction. We consider our cabins to be free-range cabins, meaning that clients can move their structure anywhere they want once they’re on site— our cabins are as adaptable to the landscape as you can make a building.

We also take great pride in the craftsmanship and quality that goes into every cabin we build. We use the highest quality materials that are locally available, and employ craftsmanship that allows us to strive toward our 100-year lifespan goal.

Where do you ship, and where is the prefab currently available?

We ship anywhere in the continental United States, but are mostly focusing on the Western U.S.

Is your design currently pre-permitted in any U.S. municipalities?

Our cabin is generally considered a non-permanent structure in most municipalities, which allows for conditional recreational and personal use without the need for a permit.

How long can a client expect the process to take after they put down a deposit?

Our build time, from deposit to delivery, is generally two months for one to two cabins.

What aspects of an install do you manage?

Our cabins don’t require any on-site installation, are completely turn key, and are ready to be plugged into on-site power and water as soon as they arrive. That being said, we are a team of architects and builders, so we also offer campground planning services. This includes site planning, project management, development permitting, and select build services.

What aspects of the design can a client customize?

We offer the following customizable options: kitchenette, toilet room with either a composting or conventional toilet, a queen bed with a storage platform, a Mitsubishi mini-split (heating and air-conditioning), as well as removable stairs. Clients can customize their cabin’s paint color, metal color, fixtures, flooring, and the finish on the interior walls and ceiling.

More from Bivvi:

This Tiny A-Frame Cabin Is Available for Less Than $20K