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Prefab cabins that 'disappear among the trees' designed by Canadian architects

2022-04-14T09:00:00-04:00

Québec City-based architects Bourgeois Lechasseur have completed a set of contemporary cabins in the woods near the Canadian metropolis. Titled Reflection, the two identical cabins sit on a flat clearing close to Massif Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, a popular ski resort.

Photography by Adrien Williams + Maxime Brouillet

Despite the far-reaching scenic views, the cabins seek to engage guests with a close, intimate relationship with nature, creating lodgings that would “almost disappear among the trees.” This disappearing act is centered on a completely mirror-glazed main façade reflecting the surrounding woodlands, with darkened wooden slats covering the other three sides.

Photography by Adrien Williams + Maxime Brouillet

Several design moves were made to create continuity between the interior and exterior. The entrance to each cabin has been pushed inwards, with a light pine used to clad the ceiling of both the external patio and internal spaces. The dark wood cladding from the ext...

Volkan Alkanoglu's new 'Drift' Pedestrian Bridge opens in Fort Worth, Texas

2021-08-05T10:06:00-04:00

Portland, Oregon-based designer Volkan Alkanoglu has installed a new timber and steel pedestrian bridge to showcase the “Plug-and-play urbanism” design strategy that is emerging behind the help of new technologies. The prefabricated off-site and installed in only a few hours, Noah’s Ark-like structure was commissioned by the city’s Public Art program to span an 80-foot-wide culvert in the South Hills neighborhood south of downtown.

The design is meant to resemble driftwood that collects in the creek area, which is also defined by mid-century modern ranch homes that Alkanoglu drew on for an additional reference.

Photography by Jennifer Boomer

Per the architect: “While Alkanoglu originally envisioned fabricating the bridge solely from cross-laminated timber, budgetary constraints encouraged a different but equally innovative strategy. Taking a cue from shipbuilding techniques, he and a team of engineers began with a steel armature, but veered away from tradition by cladding it with CN...