Exterior
Raised on concrete piers among tall pines above the lake, with a stone path and stair leading up to a deck that threads between the trunks
Raised on a forest of concrete piers among the pines above the lake, this compact one-bedroom retreat is built almost entirely of deck. A single wraparound porch threads between the trunks to link two glass-walled pods, an open kitchen-and-living room and a bedroom, with a cedar hot tub set into the boards beside a pine growing straight up through the deck.
Tree House treats the deck as the real floor plan. The cabin is lifted clear of the forest floor on a grid of concrete piers, threading between the existing pines rather than clearing them; one trunk rises straight up through the boards beside the cedar hot tub. A stone path curves across the forest floor to a single stair, and from there the deck wraps almost the entire footprint. Very little of the plan is enclosed; most of daily life is meant to happen out on the boards under the deep roof overhangs, with the trees close on every side and the lake just beyond.
The enclosed square footage is kept deliberately small and split into two linked pods. One holds an open kitchenette, dining table, and a sofa by the wood stove, under a skylight and behind walls of glass that fold away entirely to the deck. The other is the bedroom, with a desk, built-in storage, and its own wood stove, opened to the porch and hot tub by the same folding glass doors. It's a small-footprint cabin built on the idea that the best room in the house is the one with no walls at all.