Solus

Timber Frame Mountain Cabins

​

The scheme surrounds two mountain cabins whose forms are derived from splitting a cuboid cleanly into two halves. Metaphorically, these represent the two halves of our client, a writer trying to find the other half of themself through their creations. 

 

One cabin is located on the top of the mountain to fulfil the writer’s self-actualisation through writing, and the other is at the bottom to fulfil their physiological needs. This order corresponds to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which also graphically resembles a mountain. The journey taken from one cabin to the other symbolises the transition between the two needs and thus the two halves of the writer.

 

Designed as a demountable structure, the cabins are built of European larch wood. For each cabin, charred wood cover strips surround three facades, with the diagonal facade kept clean to mirror the concept of a cuboid being sliced in half. This shows that the cabins are still two parts of a whole despite being about a kilometre away from each other.