Writer’s Cabins
Lake Arrowhead, CA
Residential / Single Family Home
1,200 SF
Private
Design Development
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Located in the forested mountains just south of Lake Arrowhead, the Writer’s Cabins are two distinct but related proposals for a vacation home for Los Angeles-based designer and screenwriters. The cabins offer a refuge in nature by orchestrating visual connection between the cozy interior spaces and the sweeping views of the dense hillside forest.
The schemes clearly draw from the contextual language of vernacular cabins, but seek to reconsider and expand the architectural boundaries of these traditional elements through methods of direct, striking manipulation.
The site consists of two flat zones, one lower and one higher, divided down the middle by a steep grade change. Both schemes are positioned on the site in an orientation that takes advantage of this natural elevational shift in the topography. By doing this, the cabin can be approached from the lower elevation, where driveway access currently exists, and from the higher elevation, which establishes a relationship with the existing adjacent cabin located further up the hillside.
At the rear, the “L Scheme” appears more solid and volumetric and is punctuated by two hearths.
The “L Scheme” is conceived as a cabin that is “split” down the middle and rotated open at a hinge point. Through this operation, the traditional cabin massing becomes L shaped with two wings of equal proportions. Following the idea of the cut and rotation, the inner faces of the “L” feel open and permeable as if the cabin has literally been split open. On these elevations, glass panels span between wood to give the impression of wood framing that would typically be hidden within the walls. In this way, the contemporary curtain wall is translated into the vernacular language of the cabin in order to maximize light and views into what could otherwise be dark cabin spaces.
The “L” shaped plan naturally divides programs between more public (kitchen and living room), and more private (bedrooms and bathrooms). The entry and the hinge point are punctuated by two solid brick volumes that highlight their importance. These volumes conflate the traditional chimney with various other architectural elements like lightwells, thresholds and hearths. The L scheme’s combination and reinterpretation of architectural elements play on the “familiar cabin” to produce a sense of surprise and delight.
The double-height living spaces in the “V Scheme” are oriented toward a large glass wall that frames the view of the wooded valley.
In contrast, the “V Scheme” evolved from the idea of a pair of cabins sited with the second placed askew, overlapping the first. The first cabin sits parallel to an existing step in the land while the angle of the second is oriented toward the most desirable view of the valley. The rooms are organized similarly to the “L Scheme”, with the living and dining spaces located in the cabin that has more expansive high ceilings, and the bedrooms in the cabin that is more intimately scaled.
The “V Scheme” is conceptualized as a pair of fraternal twin cabins, joined by a continuous roof form. The point of intersection is highlighted by a double height glass reveal.
The intersection of the two wings creates a private outdoor space that the living and dining room flow directly onto. This interior court is warmed by an exterior hearth.
High ceiling living room and kitchen are illuminated by multiple sources of light.
The cabins are stitched together through a continuous roof, and a generous porch at their overlap that blends two cabins into one. By combining two cabins with similar material expression but distinct spatial characteristics, this scheme’s strengths are its variety in scale and the vacillation of readings between two and one, solid and glass, traditional and contemporary.
Process diagram for the L scheme.
Process diagrams for the V scheme.
L Scheme Plans
V Scheme Plans