Around 2015, architect Javier Campos of Campos Studio ran into his next client while she was out walking her dog in Vancouver, B.C. “She said that she was leaving Vancouver and moving to Sooke,” says Campos. The motto for the district of Sooke, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, is “Where the rainforest meets the sea”—and that perfectly describes the acreage Campos’s client purchased to build a small two-bedroom house, with one bedroom for her, and one for incoming guests she was sure to have.

“It’s remote. Nobody comes and visits you for the afternoon,” says Campos. “You need to have some way of hosting people.”

When it came time to do a site visit, the firm decided to camp out. “Something we do with almost all of our projects outside the city, is to actually go and spend time on the site,” says Campos. They took a few trips and hiked in with their gear since there was no access road yet.

The approach gives them a more holistic understanding of the setting, rather than a small window of time on a particular day. “You can be there from one to three in the afternoon and you may have an understanding of what the site is like from one to three in the afternoon, but you have no idea what happens when the sun comes up or when the sun sets,” says Campos.

The design team do their best to observe as much as possible during those early trips. That way, “you tend to find the place on a site that feels good,” says Campos.

On their campouts, the team discovered a natural gathering point to which everyone would gravitate: a knoll at the highest point of the land that looked out to the ocean and back to the mountains. “Once we found that, we built just behind that,” said Campos. “Once you find a great place, the best thing is not to put your house on top of [it].”

Campos also learned from his client that the property had been bought and sold four times previous to her purchase, “because people tried to build right on the water and it was too complicated,” says Campos.

Now, the home captures everything that the land has to offer, framing perspectives of the ocean, the forest, and the mountains in both close-ups of tree trunks and canopy, as well as panorama shots.

“Each space has a different view,” says Campos. “Psychologically, each space is different. So, even though [the house is] very small, when you move from space to space, you feel that you are in a different area [of the forest].”

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom plan is spread across 1,480 square feet, with open-concept living spaces forming the central spine. Thin strips of cedar clad the exterior and continue inside, blurring the separation between inside and out. “You feel like you actually are sitting in the forest, but you’re protected,” says senior designer Czarina Ray.

We’re Nuts About This Acorn-Shaped Cabin on an Island in British Columbia

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Campos Studio / @campos_studio

Builder: Paul Clarkston Construction

Structural Engineering: Equilibrium Engineering

Interior Design: Czarina Ray and Alix Demontrond

Millwork: Nigel MacMillan

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