THE CABIN ON JACKFISH LAKE
single family residential
2020, unbuilt
The Cabin on Jackfish Lake is a small and modest home located on a bluff overlooking a serene prairie lake. The home is designed for year-round living by retired clients with frequent visits from children and grandchildren. The cabin is divided up into two primary forms; one housing the private bedrooms and the other containing public shared spaces.
The massings are simple gable forms that relate to the traditional building shapes of barns and outbuildings commonly found across the prairies. The form containing private program is slanted as a visual cue to the aging barns found throughout the prairies and an architectural ode to the retired clients. The cabin is clad in reclaimed barn wood and charcoal standing seam metal. The wood connects the building to its historical setting, relating to the traditional material of the surrounding prairie structures. The metal provides a durable finish while reflecting on more contemporary building materials.
The front entry is nestled in between the two primary masses of the house. Vehicular entry swings around the west of the house and enters on the lower floor below the patio. The garage and service areas have been sunk into the bluff below the main floor and out of the way. The kitchen, dining room, living room and patio float out over top of the bluff as it descends to the lake. The experience is creates an intensified connection between the occupant and the lake This connection is further spatially reinforced by an expansive sliding glass wall that can disappear and blend the inside and outside. The floors are connected by a steel wrapped wood tread stair. The combination of materials aligns with the material palette of the exterior cladding and represents the old intertwining with the new. A view out to the landscape is framed in a long hallway that leads to the main bedroom that is sheltered away from the shared spaces. The lower floor contains guest rooms, a large games room and the garage. The upper floor is a play loft for the grandchildren.
