Cabin House designed by Rusafova-Markulis Architects, PLLC is situated on a wooded suburban lot in Asheville NC. It was designed for a couple who moved to the mountains from a big city looking for a more relaxed lifestyle, more time outside and daily connection to nature. They wanted to downsize and pair down their possessions to the essentials. That desire for simplicity carried over to the concept for their home. We were asked to provide a cozy, simple shelter in the woods that feels more like a cabin than an every day city home. Being on a budget was another constraint that dictated many of the design decisions. Photography by Ryan Theede, Lissa Gotwals.

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To take full advantage of the lot we broke down the program into three volumes – cars/auto-court, public and private and housed each in a simple box then slid the boxes against each other to allow for views and sunlight. We convinced the owners to swap the garage for a carport with storage in order to maintain the feeling of lightness as one approaches the home.

The public volume has a higher ceiling and catches light and views in three directions. It has a covered deck to the east. The private one steps down a few steps with the site and houses 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and a media/ office room.

Strategically placed windows capture views of the forest. With time the native vegetation will grown back closer to the house making it almost invisible from the road. We chose the dark exterior color to help camouflage the structure visually even in winter when the forest is more open.

Interior and exterior finishes are simple and paired down – the dark exterior is in contrast with the warm interiors – dark cement lap siding painted black warm pine floors and rough-sawn pine plywood for the ceilings, IKEA cabinets with white fronts and white walls.