Firewood Cabin To Respect The Original History Of The Place

The Belvedere Cabin forms an important part of the dense oak forests of Haute Savoie, France. Designed by Louis Cayol and Angel Aguilera, an architectural practice based in Bordeaux, the project is a tribute to the primordial state of the region before the log cabins were built. At first, The Belvedere was an almost untouched natural setting with stunning views over the Chaise Valley. As a result of this special location, finally clearing was done by cutting down native trees to allow viewing the views.

This project was born to honor the original history of the place, the architect wanted to restore what was lost from the land, give it meaning, legitimacy, build a wooden structure in the clearing from the original trees that had been removed to create the clearing. The log cabin, which has the official name, ‘Seeking the View, I Found the Forest’, is made up of two simple elements. The frame was made of pine slabs while piles of chopped oak kindling filled the voids in the cabin walls.

The architects wanted to respect the growth of the trees that existed before the clearing. They wanted the hut to also be useful in the long term, providing warmth to its occupants by burning logs inserted into the frame. It’s this concept that makes a firewood hut usable for a lifetime, as long as the frame doesn’t move.

Making the invisible visible, transmitting universal and contextual messages simultaneously. Logs draw on indigenous traditions and form huts to question our influence on the landscape.

At first glance, this hut looks like a stere of wood with a frame made of pine wood and filling of oak. The volume of the huts was deliberately made to represent the number of trees lost at the site, calculated in relation to the density, height and diameter of the trees that have fruited at the site. In collaboration with local residents, the wood used for construction came from a local sawmill which is about 10 kilometers from the site. The hut is in the town of Faverges-Seythenex in southeastern France, and the Belvedere cabin is part of the annual Le Festival Des Cabanes, an annual event to raise awareness about the relationship between humans and nature.