Project Description
This modest cabin for a young family sits at the end of an old logging road, its compact volume built into a densely wooded slope at the edge of a clearing. Minimizing the building’s footprint and taking advantage of the sloped site, the horizontally organized components of a traditional cabin compound – typically an open-plan longhouse with communal living space, an outhouse, and a freestanding toolshed – were reconfigured and stacked vertically. The bottom level serves as the infrastructural base for the living quarters above. Stairs lead up to the open living hall centered around a stove and bracketed by a galley kitchen and small sleeping rooms. Tall curtains can be moved or retracted to screen the kitchen or offer privacy to the sleeping rooms. Large apertures frame extensive views and access to a hillside terrace; in the summer, they turn into screened openings, transforming the living hall into an outdoor room and facilitating a high degree of cross-ventilation. A simple material palette drawn from the region’s farmstead architecture echoes the muted hues of the surrounding forest. White interiors lighten up the inside during the long winter months, providing a quiet foreground against which nature’s ever-changing tableau can unfold.