Wallpaper* Log House
Berlin | 2009
Wallpaper* Log House
The Architects Directory
Giving a fresh slant to Wallpaper’s annual pick of the best young architects, the magazine asked us to create a model home to be part of a display in the superbly rebuilt Neues Museum in Berlin.
Wallpaper* Log House
Every year, Wallpaper* Magazine publishes the Architects Directory, a list of 30 emerging practices worldwide. In 2009, they selected Studiomama and asked each practice to create their ideal home at a scale of 1:20 for Future Thirty, an exhibition at the Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany.
We designed the Wallpaper* Log House for a sloping site in a Swedish forest in an attempt to reinterpret the traditional log cabin. Lifting its archetypal form onto the first floor created more space, and two cantilevers, one of which is entirely glazed apart from its floor, provide year-round views of the surrounding woodland.
Adding a strong environmental element into the design, the Wallpaper* Log House uses local wood and, taking advantage of the logs' inherent heat retention qualities, needs no further insulation. Geothermal systems provide heating and cooling, and the structures' electrical needs are covered by an anaerobic composting system.
The project received coverage in the Wallpaper* Architects Directory, Archdaily, and was shown in a second exhibition at the Chabot Museum, Rotterdam.