After more than 15 years spent in construction, high school friends Simon Fyall and Richard Egli started to imagine an architecture that blended in with the landscape of British Columbia better than industry-standard buildings. Soon after, the pair founded Blend Projects to build their vision: crisp gabled homes strung together from eight-foot-long cedar-sided glulam sections.
Designed by Minneapolis firm Sala Architects, the 820-square-foot Metal Lark Tower marked the first rental cabin to open at Nordlys Lodging, a 140-acre property in Frederic, Wisconsin. Small windows on the northwest side of the two-story structure provide privacy and protection from winter winds. Solar panels and natural heat insulated by the triple-paned windows add to the structure’s efficiency.
Two cabins sit in the vast, empty landscape overlooking the Hekla volcano, around three hours’ drive from Reykjavík. The front part of each cabin—for sleeping—is almost entirely glass, while the rear—where the living, kitchen and bathroom spaces are located—is clad in timber for privacy.
Inside, Pine walls and ceilings received a dark stain, as did Oak floors.
A 4kw tiny wood-burning stove warms each cabin.
The two tiny homes were designed by CAST Architecture.
Designed by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, the low structure has a simple rectangular shape and concrete walls that protect a central atrium, with huge sliding windows opening up the interior towards the bucolic meadow landscape.