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Modern architecture has found an incredible partner in nature. For those who love an outdoor adventure, but also enjoy the sleek lines of modern buildings, they will be pleased to know that cabins are now featuring many futuristic lines that defy the settings where they live.
Traditionally, cabins have been made of wood and featured warm colors and structures similar to their surroundings.
However, in recent years cabin design has added a twist and has incorporated abstract layouts to their construction and have traveled to rustic settings. Futuristic cabin design is not only enjoyable because of its features and comfort, but regarding these constructions is an experience in and of itself.
Lovers of the outdoors and of buildings and architectural feats are sure to enjoy this new trend. Cabins having unexpected shapes and many other new designs are just waiting to become icons within their surroundings.
The amateur and experienced eyes are for sure going to be pleased to combine the love of the outdoors and the love of architecture in one single trip.
Modern cabin designs (quick overview)
- Tree House Porch by John Grable
- Utriai Residence by Architectural Bureau G.Natkevicius and Partners
- Villa-K by Cell Space Architects
- Wintergreen Cabin by Balance Associates Architects
- Writer’s Studio by Cooper Joseph Studio
- Cabin on Flathead Lake by Andersson Wise Architects
- Delta Shelter by Olson Kundig Architects
- Doe Bay Cabin by Heliotrope Architects
- Ferienhaus Girardi by Philip Lutz
- Micro Cabin by Robin Falck
- Mountain Cabin by Marte.Marte Architekten
- Phillip K. Smith’s transparent log cabin
- Sneeoosh by zeroplus
- Stacked Cabin by Johnsen Schmaling Architects
- Sunset Cabin by Taylor Smyth Architects
- The Tree House by Baumraum
Now let’s take a look at them in detail.
Tree House Porch by John Grable
A 1950s timber home in Terrell Hills, Texas needed a sustainable upgrade, so John Grable Architects transformed it into what the client now calls their “dream home.” The entry façade and screened porch both needed attention, but the project was restrained by a shoestring budget, which is why the design team opted to create a welcoming street-facing porch in lieu of a new façade.
Utriai Residence by Architectural Bureau G.Natkevicius and Partners
The house was built on the Minija valley slope. The house should be an image of a fire place made from huge logs or like the Noah‘s ship where the family with all their belongings and animals moved from the city.
Villa-K by Cell Space Architects
This site is located on a hilltop in one of the eminent Karuizawa villa areas. All directions around the site are clear for view in winter.The villa consists of four parts of floors and four parts of roofs around a central pillar.
Wintergreen Cabin by Balance Associates Architects
Writer’s Studio by Cooper Joseph Studio
The writer’s studio is a place for one person to work, read and listen to music. Open vistas to a pond and fields are to one side, the other side is immersed in deep woods. The overall impression of the structure is deceivingly simple.
Each façade is composed with distinct apertures specifically arranged to the light, the views and tailored, like a bespoke suit to his size and eye level. The inside is, uncluttered and elegant, unified by the use of walnut.
Cabin on Flathead Lake by Andersson Wise Architects
The cabin’s diaphanous volume is set on six steel piers that are delicately anchored to concrete blocks set into the slope. Screened walls enclose a living area, which has an open floor plan and wood slat floors that extend outside. Amenities are sparse but not neglected: a small kitchen, bathroom, and shower allow guests an overnight stay. The cabin has no heating or cooling system and running water is pumped from the lake below.
Delta Shelter by Olson Kundig Architects
Delta Shelter – a 1,000 square-foot cabin – is essentially a steel-clad box on stilts that can be completely shuttered when the owner is away. The 200 square-foot footprint of the house rises above a 40-acre, 100-year flood plain adjacent to the Methow River.
The verticality, coloring and raw nature of the materials used for construction directly respond to the wildness of the setting.
The owner sought a compact, easy to maintain, virtually indestructible building to house himself and his friends for fun and adventure in the mountains. With an exterior of steel, the house is virtually indestructible.
Doe Bay Cabin by Heliotrope Architects
Located on Orcas Island in Washington, the Doe Bay Cabin bespeaks a keen attention to material economy and site sensitivity.
Designed by Seattle-based Heliotrope Architects, the small residence utilizes the efficiency of prefabricated building elements to formalize the clients’ modest cohabitation with the site and it’s incredible natural offerings. More photographs and drawings after the break.
The cabin was designed as a glass house surrounded by three wooden slat decks that can be raised—through a system of hydraulic winches, wire rope, pivoting sheaves, and lead blocks—to serve as shutters.
Open, the shutter decks are outdoor living space, connecting to the cabin’s interior through tall windows and sliding doors; closed, they secure the cabin. The fireplace rotates 180 degrees to be enjoyed indoors or out. An inverted roof with deep overhangs forces water to drain to the rear of the cabin.
Ferienhaus Girardi by Philip Lutz
The Girardi House stands in a special place: very close to the peak of the Pfänder, about 50 meters away from the radio mast. The site offers a great view of Lake Constance in the northeast and of the mountains of the Bregenz Forest to the east. The triangular plot is at a crossroad in between old trees and is accessible on several levels.
Micro Cabin by Robin Falck
Mountain Cabin by Marte.Marte Architekten
At the edge of a wooded ravine, beneath the imposing wooden house of the Catholic Community of Sisters, the small tower building rises from the steep hillside.
Striking and modest in appearance, it stretches up out of a small hollow situated on a narrow path along the edge of the forest. The only change made to the hillside is the driveway and the terrain has been left in its original form.
Phillip K. Smith’s transparent log cabin
Entitled Lucid Stead, the installation was created by Phillip K Smith III on a 70-year-old wooden residence within the California High Desert.
Mirrored panels alternate with weather-beaten timber siding panels to create horizontal stripes around the outer walls, allowing narrow sections of the building to seemingly disappear into the vast desert landscape.
Sneeoosh by zeroplus
Like a rabbit warming itself in the sun, the Sneeoosh cabin is the underbrush at the waters edge near Deception Pass on the Swinomish Indian Reserve. The dynamic quality of the surrounding landscape becomes integral to daily rituals.
With its glass enclosure, the main living space is exposed to both the forest and larger views of the sound, Hope Island, Whidbey Island and the Olympic Mountains beyond. The upper floor, tucked beneath the overscaled protective roof, is highly insular and protective by contrast and houses private sleeping spaces.
Stacked Cabin by Johnsen Schmaling Architects
This modest, 880 square-foot cabin for a young family sits at the end of an old logging road, its compact volume hugging the edge of a small clearing in a remote Wisconsin forest.
Sunset Cabin by Taylor Smyth Architects
Nestled into a slope on the southern shore of Lake Simcoe, this one room sleeping cabin is a simple but sophisticated Canadian bunkie, evoking the “primitive hut” of branches constructed in the wilderness.
The Chimney House in Bosschenhoofd has a simple main volume with a rectangular floor plan and a saddleback roof. The plan is based on the fact that the chimney is a disappearing feature in architecture of this century. This tempted us to create a house with several chimneys. The chimney has been used in different sizes and shapes and with different functions.
The Tree House by Baumraum
The Flemish Forest and Nature Agency and the commune of Hechtel-Eksel, were quickly sold on the idea to create this project on their premises and enthusiastically embraced the concept.
All with one vision: environmental quality and social responsibility for the benefit of people, planet and prosperity. THE TREEHOUSE helps to bridge the gap between economy and ecology.
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