Photos: Steve Montpet.
In parts of Canada and Scandinavia it seems that almost everybody has a second home in the forest or beside a lake. The beginnings of such houses can often be traced to a fishing hut, a hunting lodge, or a log cabin that provided primitive shelter for hunters and foragers in their quest to find food. As foraging trips became a drive to the supermarket, cabins were used more in a recreational capacity. A place for city dwellers to reacquaint themselves with the land. As general living standards improved, so did the facilities in the cabin. Central heating, showers, double glazing and a fitted kitchen were all added to the cabins, often in a lumpen and haphazard way.
La Luge by YH2 is a progression of this trend. As architecture, it is an elegant and sophisticated rendering of a forest dwelling, but what makes it so exciting and desirable is that it caries the spirit of the log cabin, and with it a chance to be close to nature whilst enjoying the sumptuousness of a city penthouse apartment. Read more
Takei-Nabeshima-Architects
The latest in a series of posts featuring small, architect-designed Japanese houses continues with the Ring House designed by Takei-Nabeshima-Architects (TNA) . Completed around 2005, it sits in a forest just outside Tokyo making a sublime country retreat.
The idea of making a tower in the forest can be found in several indigenous cultures from as far afield as New Zealand and North America. Usually these are totems such as carved tree trunks and are usually about making a cultural noise in the forest.
Creating a multi-storey house in the forest is an entirely different matter. The archetype is normally reserved for the city where space is a premium. Here however, the tower is used to create a sense of intimacy with the forest providing an opportunity to appreciate the trees, and in particular the canopy, in a way less commonly experienced. Read more
Photos: Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Architects Co.
Continuing the series looking at Japanese houses of the last few years, I was reminded of Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Architects‘ House C. This simple seaside house, is gentle and delicate. It is constructed of what appears to be rammed earth and manages to capture the spirit of the site, down to the gentle breeze that wafts its grassy roof. Read more
