GeoIsla

Lead Architect: Tom Kundig, FAIA (view bio)
Location: Mazama, WA

Photographer: Tim Bie

Responding to the owner’s need for a space to house visiting friends and family, the Rolling Huts aim to be several steps above camping, while remaining low-tech and low-impact in their design. Set almost six feet above the ground, the huts have an unobstructed view into nature and the prospect of the mountains.

Photographer: Tim Bie

The site for the huts is a licensed campground, with sixteen licensed RV sites. The owner wanted to retain the existing zoning designation, while minimizing the visual and environmental effect on the landscape. Given the contrast between a brightly painted RV and a rusted hut structure which blended in with the natural surroundings, the owner chose the latter.

Photographer: Tim Bie

The huts are grouped as a herd: while each is sited towards a view of the mountains (and away from the other structures), their proximity unites them. Bathrooms, as well as parking, are located in and near the centrally located barn, set a short distance from the herd. Rain run-off and snow melt from each hut are allowed to percolate into the surrounding naturalized landscape. These huts evoke not only the RVs which originally populated the site, but traveling caravans from the owner’s home country of Poland.

Via somelab, Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Photographer: Tim Bie

Photographer: Tim Bie