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We’d Carry This One Room Cabin From New York to the Cowichan Valley

With our city now so laughably unaffordable, thousands of Vancouverites are stuck imagining wonderful homes instead of living in them. Spaced is a record of our minds wandering the world of architecture and design, up and away from the unrewarding realities of shoebox condos, dark basement suites, sweet f~ck all on Craigslist and three levels of government that couldn’t give a damn.

(via) Tucked away in the Catskill Mountains of New York is a 360 sqft one-room cabin anchored by concrete posts and somehow held level on a heavily wooded slope by a brace of supporting pine trees. The cladding is made of wood blackened with Scandinavian pine-tar (sourced from the same trees that were felled to make room for the construction, which is set on 60 acres).

The interior – lit mostly by three massive windows, all of which swing out/in with one acting as entry/exit – is very straightforward with the walls and ceiling washed matte in white paint. It includes a tiny kitchen in one corner with a bed in another, plus a wood-burning stove.

Designed by Manhattan firm JacobsChang in 2017, it cost just $20,000 (USD) to build with the job being done over a weekend by the owners.

If we could lift it up and set it down closer to our neck of the woods, we’d trade the pines for cedars and find a good spot for it somewhere especially quiet in the Cowichan Valley.


All images © Noah Kalina

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There is 1 comment

  1. This is beautiful. But there is no way this was built for $20,000. The window system alone would cost upwards of $15,000. Then there is the rest of the materials and labour.

    The tree bolts are very interesting.

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