To get this particular view of the cabin, you would literally have to climb a tree – but – you could actually do that on this site.

The main entrance to the cabin is in the corner where the two rectangular masses intersect one another. Working our way around, you can be a better look – and hopefully a better understanding – of the building massing. Through the covered terrace is the main view to the lake – this “hole” on the ground floor was purposeful so that the existence of the lake would not be completely blocked by the cabin.

There is a garage with an isolated Master Bedroom Apartment Suite to the left, and on the right is an outdoor terrace that is covered by an elevated living/kitchen space. The image above is the approach and since the buildable footprint is so small ( the goal was to leave every tree – all 2.37 million of them – intact on this site) the sequence of how the cabin will be built is also a consideration in the process. The image above is what this entire property looks like … I took this particular picture because I was 99% sure that I had just seen Bigfoot go running by. Yes, I left them out for no other reason than I want to show the project, rather than a million tree trunks where there might be some sort of project. Something else you should be made aware of, is that the site is densely forested – which you would not know based on looking at any of the drawings I am going to highlight in today’s post. One piece of information that might be worth noting, is that there isn’t a lot of competition for contractors up here and I don’t have a lot of experience working on projects in cold weather environments – something that has led me to reading a lot of technical white papers on designing in heavy snow load areas. This project is remotely located, fronts on to a beautiful lake, and is generally considered to be a wonderful place to live. This is my cabin project … and I mean “my” in every sense of the word except that a) I’m not paying for it, b) I won’t be living in it, and c) Ryan Thomason in my office has worked on this project as much as I have. Let’s start by running through a quick description of the project. The role that drawings play in this process.But to start that process off, we need to talk about two things: I put considerable effort into thinking about how something is going to be built as part of the design process – rather than determining how something should look and then sort of reverse-engineering my way backwards into the solution.Īt any rate, today is the first of these more technically minded posts and I thought I would use a cabin project that I have been working on for some time as one of the vehicles for showcasing this information.

While I don’t consider myself the most technical of architects, I do consider that aspect of the profession as part of my skill set from a design consideration. I’ve decided that one area that I am hoping to focus on over the next year is better, more valuable, architectural content … and for me, that means I am going to try to take things in a more technical direction. If you are the sort of person who likes to look at architectural drawings, this is your lucky day.Īt least I hope that after you read today’s post you think this was your lucky day.

Log cabin line drawing