Weekend Cabin: Lake Buchanan, Texas

Architects Mell Lawrence were charged with creating a low-energy guest house for a family property on Lake Buchanan, Texas, and they crafted a clean, modern, and yet still warm and inviting space. Here’s how they describe it:

A simple metal volume perched on a bluff offers targeted views of the lake below. The guesthouse and weekend retreat complements a nearby stone residence and although it is “on the grid,” its 14 solar panels collect enough energy to power its intermittent use. Rainwater is collected from the roof for household use and the xeriscaping requires no irrigation. The house is oriented to the south, its galvanized metal exterior punctuated by windows that frame vignettes to the east and west. A partition wall separates the elongated rectangular interior and supports the lofts structure, which appears to float above the glazed joist spaces. Fir decking creates both ceiling and loft floor, and is repeated in the supersized wainscoting and stair screen wall. Thirteen-foot doors further expand the modest volume, opening to the south to capture the view, prevailing breezes, and sounds of nature.

Weekend Cabin isn’t necessarily about the weekend, or cabins. It’s about the longing for a sense of place, for shelter set in a landscape…for something that speaks to refuge and distance from the everyday. Nostalgic and wistful, it’s about how people create structure in ways to consider the earth and sky and their place in them. It’s not concerned with ownership or real estate, but what people build to fulfill their dreams of escape. The very time-shortened notion of “weekend” reminds that it’s a temporary respite. To see more weekend cabins, visit the Weekend Cabin channel page.