As a child in the 1950s, Diane Douglas would spend her summers holidaying in an old Canadian Pacific Railroad car on the shores of Lake Wasa in the mountains of British Columbia. “We would come on the first day of summer vacation and stay for six weeks,” she recalls. “Summers were a hot, easy, relaxed family time.”

Since then, the land has been divided up amongst the family—and Diane and her husband, David, have built two cabins on the property: a 160-square-foot cabin called Moongazer (built in 2012), and more recently a copper-colored cabin called TreeGazer that was inspired by the original boxcar.

“Moongazer was built on Japanese design principles and is very simple,” says Diane. “We built TreeGazer for our grandkids—the fifth generation at Wasa. It was a big exercise in nostalgia for me! Wasa has always been a summer place, but there’s skating on the lake and great skiing, so we decided to build TreeGazer for all seasons.”

Diane first began sketching cabin designs for TreeGazer in 2005, utilizing her intimate understanding of the landscape and the rhythm of the seasons. It wasn’t until 2016 that they settled on a slanted roof, and the final form began to take shape in 2018.

From the beginning, Diane knew that she wanted to create a simple cabin inspired by the original boxcar with a screened-in porch that would allow residents to feel the wind and hear the rain. “It had to be simple, small, low to the ground, and close to the elements,” she says.

Diane also wanted the dwelling to resonate with the surrounding landscape and feel like a “comfy old cabin.” And, because the site is set back from the lake, she needed to pay careful attention to orientation and sight lines.

The entire family was involved in the design, and everyone—including grandchildren—helped with the build. The family also collaborated with local Kimberley builder Trevor Bird of Shelter Design to bring Diane’s vision to life. “His team took on all the challenges of slanted walls, tricky metal flashings, and inexpensive ways to create ribbon windows,” says Diane. “Trevor was a great collaborator.”

The resulting 850-square-foot cabin sits naturally in the forest, and its design is stripped back—both in plan and palette—to the essentials. The main building houses two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living space, while the screened-in porch is separate and acts as a shield against the road.

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“We use the summer porch for reading and games, eating in bug season, and extra sleeping space,” says Diane. “For morning coffee and evening meals, we eat alfresco, looking out over the bay to the north.”

The cabin is clad in striking copper-colored steel, which mimics the bark of the surrounding ponderosa pines and stands strong against fire. Contemporary ribbon windows emphasize the horizontality of the built form and create sight lines between the two separate structures across a breezeway. These windows also open to the surrounding landscape, magically transforming it into a part of the cabin itself.

Equally dramatic are the slanting walls, which allow the windows and doors to be inset, providing protection from the elements and creating a playful contrast between light and shadow.

“The heavy verticality of the profile in contrast to the slant of the walls creates some disorienting effects,” says Diane. “And, the smooth copper of the window trim glides into the deep black of the windows. Everything reflects in the lengths of windows making it hard to tell what’s reflection and what’s real; what’s inside and what’s out.”

Between the two bedrooms in the main building is an “everything room” with bathroom and laundry facilities and storage. Currently, it functions as the only bathroom for up to ten people—“A cabin has to have a bit of inconvenience and forced getting along,” says Diane—but there are also plans for a summer bathhouse. This will help accommodate family and friends staying in TreeGazer, and it will also provide facilities for residents of the summer porch and the Moongazer.

“One of my favorite features of the boxcar was that it forced you out at night to brush your teeth and pee,” says Diane. “Once you were out—a sky full of stars!”

“It was a real gamble to dream up something we’d never seen before, and a huge relief when it not only worked but fit so naturally into the landscape,” says Diane. “We moved in last August, and it’s just beginning to feel real. We love watching the kids making forts, hiding in the woods, swinging in the hammock, and swimming and fishing in the lake. They were our reason for building it—the fifth generation at Wasa Lake.”

Related Reading:

A Filmmaker Builds a Rustic Off-Grid Cabin Deep in a Canadian Forest for $64K

8 Outstanding Cabins For Rent in Canada

Project Credits:

Designer & Homeowner: Diane Douglas

Builder: Shelter Design

Steel Cladding: Westman Steel

Photographer: Frida Viklund