16 Dreamy Ski Cabins We Wish We Were Holed Up In This Winter (Via Dwell)

via Dwell By Alia Akkam 

 

While you’re hunkered down at home, fix yourself a hot toddy and enjoy a virtual tour of these snowbound chalets.

 

With travel plans disrupted by COVID-19 and usually bustling resorts refining safety protocols for a pandemic-adapted ski season, a snowy holiday at the slopes may be tricky to navigate this year—but that won’t keep us from dreaming of fresh powder. For now, we’ll make do by taking a mental vacation to the wintry retreats below.

 

 

At Alex Strohl and Andrea Dabene’s Nooq House in the Rocky Mountains of northwest Montana, highlights include a suspended fireplace, cathedral ceilings, and expansive windows. "The windows are my favorite feature. I've loved seeing the colors change in the fall, snow in the winter, and bears in the spring," says Andrea.

 

 

Home to Whitefish Mountain Resort and neighboring Glacier National Park, the town of Whitefish, Montana, is where French photographers and outdoor enthusiasts Alex Strohl and Andrea Dabene have built their dream house with the help of Montana Creative architecture + design. Formed by two gable sections on either side of a central living area, it’s available to rent while the couple tackle another nearby project. Look out for a soaking tub, light fixtures from Schoolhouse Electric, and ceramic tiles in colors that mirror the surrounding foliage. 

 

 

Oliver and Sara Fritsch’s Mount Hood getaway—not far from Mount Hood Meadows, one of the largest ski resorts in Oregon—is tall and skinny, reminiscent of the canal houses in Amsterdam, where the Fritsch family lived for three years. Also notable is the facade, painted in a custom shade of soft black. Inside, the house is arranged in a reverse layout, with the open living space located at the top.

 

 

As president of Portland, Oregon–based Schoolhouse Electric, the custom lighting manufacturer and lifestyle goods purveyor, Sara Fritsch has an innate sense of style. For her family’s chalet—the handiwork of Keystone Architecture Planning & Project Management, Ethan Beck Homes, and Casework—mirroring the Dutch social philosophy of gezellig was key. "We wanted to capture the cozy," says Fritsch. "Gezellig is something that attracts people, encourages them to gather and stay a while." The black brick fireplace, accompanied by fur throws, floor cushions, and a bespoke floral sectional inspired by one of Dutch artist Jan Davidszoon de Heem’s still life paintings, heightens that welcoming aura.

 

 

In the cobblestoned center of Andermatt, Switzerland, renowned for its skiing, locals Al and Francesca Breach scooped up a cottage dating from 1620 that they hoped to transform into an office with a ground-floor wine bar and guest accommodations. Although it was reimagined for contemporary living, it is graced with inviting old touches, like an original stone oven that still provides heat.

 

 

Nossenhaus, a 17th-century stone-and-timber structure, desperately needed a revival, and Jonathan Tuckey of Jonathan Tuckey Design, in collaboration with architect Ruedi Kreienbühl, came to the rescue. First, newer additions like exterior shingles and gable dormers were stripped away. Now, it’s spruced up with an energy-efficient roof covered in wood tiles and larch planks wherever original timber couldn’t be salvaged. "We said, ‘Let’s put in something that’s unashamedly of its time, and it will develop the patina of age just as the original materials have done,'" explains Tuckey.

 

 

Ten minutes from British Columbia’s prized Whistler and Blackcomb ski areas, this house is located on a small lot atop a hill. Embracing a vertical layout, the upper level is where the open living area, complete with sectional, wood-burning stove, marble island, and spacious dining table, is found. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the forest views are especially heady.

 

 

Situated on a steep site, the Gilbert House, by Evoke International Design, is clad in concrete and matte black cedar. By contrast, the interiors are brighter, with floors, walls, and ceilings planked with pale oak. The spare layout and edited material palette are intentional, according to Evoke founding partner David Nicolay: "Using only one type of material on the inside pares back distraction. We are almost creating a kind of tunnel with the materials, so that the eye focuses on the view." Another stand-out element is the cantilevered upper floor, which allows for a terrace. 

 

 

Nick Dignard and Marie-Catherine P. Émond built this 256-square-foot cabin, an A-Frame structure enveloped by two extended wings, to celebrate a love of outdoor sports. Located in Québec’s Lac-Beauport, the living, dining, and kitchen areas are filled with natural light so that the cabin feels as if it’s actually outside.

 

 

"We chose this spot because it was the most exposed to the sunset," says Nick Dignard. "We get really great sunsets here." Available for rental, the low-key La Cabin Ride & Sleep, situated on high Mont Tourbillon in the vacation community of Le Maelström, is a project passion for Dignard, a photo and video producer—and avid cyclist—and his wife Marie-Catherine P. Émond of M4 Architecture. While Émond designed the 16-by-16-foot dwelling, showcasing window openings on the roof, Nick took on much of the construction himself, crafting the dining table, stump chairs, loft ladder, kitchen cabinets, and suspended wood plank ceiling lights.

 

 

Beyond the facade of rough-cut logs laid out in a diagonal pattern, Casper and Lexie Mork-Ulnes’ rural Norwegian home is defined by a material palette of pine, brightened by the natural light and wood and meadow views that pour through the floor-to-ceiling windows. 

 

 

Forty-five minutes from Lillehammer, Norway, a ski base made famous by the 1994 Winter Olympics, Casper and Lexie Mork-Ulnes, the couple behind Mork Ulnes Architects, have crafted Skigard Hytte, an unconventional log cabin. Raised on columns and featuring a roof swathed in sod and grass as a nod to Scandinavian tradition, the structure is clad in skigard, a split-rail construction method typically reserved for farm fences. "We liked the idea of this meticulous craft," says Casper. "It’s rough but it’s tidy." An oculus skylight and antique Norwegian farm table and chairs extend the rustic atmosphere indoors.

 

 

On a steep, forested, nearly 30-degree slope adjacent to a ski run and lodge north of Lake Tahoe, Greg Faulkner, founder of Faulkner Architects, spent multiple years working on this contemporary family cabin. The roof "tilts up to the mountains and down to the valley like a visor, while the main home mirrors the ski run to the east side of the property, so the home has a central axis that runs up through it," he says. During the winter, one can ski directly into the living room, with its inset fireplace and 17-foot-high ceilings.

 

 

Full-height sliding glass doors connect the surrounding mountains to The Lookout House, which is topped with a fire-resistant steel plate roof and anchored by large, 20-foot-long insulated concrete walls. Although the abode favors a cool, crisp aesthetic over a traditional ski cabin vernacular, warmth is found in the radiant-heated basalt floors and a central red-tinted glass column that pairs with mustard yellow and light blue, evoking the American Southwest. In the kitchen, modular shelving and a monolithic, sandblasted stainless-steel island reinforce the home’s forward-thinking design. 

 

 

In British Columbia’s Soo Valley, only some 20 minutes from Whistler skiing, this off-grid residence designed by Perkins & Will is a pilot for Delta Land Development’s future alpine settlement. Principally powered by the sun, it’s built to Passive House standards, collecting its own water and treating its own waste. Heated by a GeoExchange geothermal pump, it also embraces natural ventilation with cleverly placed windows.

 

 

The first of numerous Passive House-designed structures in Delta Land Development’s forthcoming eco-friendly enclave in British Columbia features a number of thoughtful measures from Perkins & Wills, like a steel roof to withstand heavy snowfall, solar panels, and wool insulated walls. Locally harvested Douglas fir clads the interior, mixing with hickory flooring, alternatives to carbon-heavy steel, glass, and concrete. Prefabricated and assembled on site, the layout of the Passive House structure also stars a commodious outdoor deck. Ultimately, it’s a home that "involves being more considerate of energy efficiency, health and wellness, and minimizing your carbon footprint," says Delta Land Development president Bruce Langereis. 

 

 

When staying in one of the prefabricated chalets at Whitepod Eco-Luxury Hotel in Monthey, Switzerland, ski trips are prefaced by breakfasts that are delivered daily via a 100% electric Land Rover Defender food truck. Drawing power from a hydroelectric turbine, the zinc-roofed structures are energy self-sufficient.

 

 

At Whitepod Eco-Luxury Hotel, guests love to sleep in the property’s geodesic dome-shaped tents dubbed "pods." But now Montalba Architects has added another type of freestanding accommodation to the mix: low-impact, prefabricated larch-clad chalets. Currently there are three—there are plans for 21 in total—and all are pared down, with polished concrete flooring and space divided into active day and peaceful night zones. When all the chalets are complete, says the firm’s founding principal David Montalba, it "will give the image of a mountain village that blends seamlessly into the sloping landscape while mirroring the traditional chalet villages found nearby."

 

 

Close to Sugarbush’s Mount Ellen and the Mad River Glen ski area, Fayston, Vermont, is the prime setting for Little Black House. Giving the retreat its name, Elizabeth Herrmann Architecture + Design only had 1,120 square feet to work with. Sitting just below the top of a hill, the black-stained cabin flaunts a classic gable structure with a stripped-down interior melding white walls and pale wood floors.

 

 

To maximize the compact space, architect and designer Elizabeth Herrmann opted for materials like locally harvested and milled ash wood throughout. She also focused on the experiential aspects, incorporating open shelving, a wood-fired stove, and large windows that capture different shifts in the landscape. "It can sometimes be very like the textures and colors of its surroundings—the siding mimics tree bark and shadows, and sometimes blends into the woods. At other times, especially winter, the house really contrasts with the landscape’s snowy ground," Herrmann says. Bonus: The cabin is energy-efficient, outfitted with R5 windows and a wall-hung heat pump. 

 

 

Lake Poisson Blanc, some three hours from Montréal and 90 minutes from the Mont Ste. Marie ski resort, is the remote backdrop for Naturehumaine Architects’ compact and monochrome cabin embedded on a slope, a meditation on white.

 

 

According to Naturehumaine’s principal architect Stéphane Rasselet, this forest cabin is a "pure and somewhat abstract white volume characterized by a series of vertical slits for windows and doors all blending harmoniously within an immaculate winter blanket of snow. The house magically blends into the trees and becomes whole with the site." Walls and ceilings are painted white to match the exterior and the seasonal natural environment. Contrasting with the neutral canvas are Shalwin tilt and turn aluminum windows as well as integrated storage units and cabinetry fashioned from maple veneer, raw concrete, and ceramic tiles. 

 

 

Remarkable for its walls of triple-glazed glass, Snorre Stinessen Architecture’s Ejford Cabin straddles two stone ridges on northern Norway’s Hallvardøy Island. Perched on a concrete slab, it intentionally capitalizes upon passive solar conditions and features thick insulation to minimize energy output. 

 

 

"The shape of the building is both a dialogue with the close natural formations, but also with the larger landscape. Its functional aspects create privacy and indoor/outdoor connections to different zones around the building," says Snore Stinessen of this dynamic glass cabin on Norway's Hallvardøy Island. Overlooking the fjord and mountains, the year-round home, for a couple with deep ties to the secluded area, comprises two volumes. In the smaller of them is the open-plan living area wrapped in birch veneer and the den, which features a sculptural riser staircase. Bedrooms and the sauna, lined in hygroscopic aspen slats, are found in the larger one.

 

 

Silvano Zamò, third-generation winemaker at Le Vigne di Zamò winery, and his wife Brigitte tasked architecture firm GEZA with a holiday home on a hilltop location in the tiny northern Italian village of Camporosso, not far from the ski resort Monte Lussari.

 

 

To navigate such a steep rocky site in northern Italy, GEZA forged two interconnected gable volumes that step down the existing slope. They are clad in concrete and wrapped in a wood screen that conjures the alpine vernacular. "From the outside, the house seems to ‘slip’ on the ground—the ground is inclined and fluid, and the house is light and does not impose terraces or other violent works on the landscape. From the inside, the volume of the living area is defined by an impressive exposed concrete roof, which follows the slanting of the two volumes with different heights. It seems to enter the mountain," explain the architects. Serizzo white granite and dark gray-painted European oak juxtaposed with Swiss pine add further visual interest to the interior.

 

 

A run-down 1960s cabin in the Swiss Jura Mountains, a gateway to skiing, has been given a smart, playful overhaul by the architecture studio Frundgallina. Carved into four distinct sections, it’s a spiral playground that mingles different heights and thresholds.

 

 

Simple materials are at the heart of this 100% energy-efficient cabin, which is assembled from vertically laid fir planks and capped in a mere sheet of folded stainless steel. Still, it stands out. A large pitched-top door and a small pitched-top window are cut out from each of the four sides of the exterior walls. "Only the ridge of the two-sided roof directs the house. Otherwise, the chalet does not have a specific address or entrance; or rather, it benefits from four different ones," explains Frundgallina co-founder Antonio Gallina. "Accordingly, one enters and exits most of the rooms from and to the outdoors, integrating the pastures as a spatial sequence."

 

 

Eager to flee the city at a moment’s notice, a couple who run a creative studio in Bratislava decided it was time for a weekend home. On a forested plot overlooking a lake in nearby Vojkanad Dunajom, architect Peter Jurkovič of JRKVC created a calming cabin that frames views of the countryside.

 

 

Slovakia’s mountainous terrain lends itself well to skiing. This yurt-style cabin is an hour from the Pezinská Baba resort outside the capital, Bratislava. Clad in black plastic film and surrounded in a lattice frame when the owners are away, its rectangular shape belies the circular floor plan indoors. Sparsely furnished, it’s a soothing space warmed by a dome skylight and features built-in alcove seating, a wood-fired stove, and a bedroom tucked away by a curtain. To further maintain the uncluttered living space, wooden doors can conceal the kitchen, and bunk beds can easily hide in a louvered closet. 

 

 

Fittingly, there are numerous whimsical elements inside Lake Cottage, a reinterpreted tree house in Ontario. There is the wood-burning fireplace with the house-shaped surround, for example, the scalloped shingles, and the staircase made from a huge maple log scraped of its bark that leads to the loft. "This abstract nature of the interior spaces allows imagination to flow, and those spaces that could be identified as a domestic interior can suddenly become play spaces," say the architects. 

 

 

Set in a forest near Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes, well known for the Devil’s Elbow ski area, this steeply pitched, two-story structure designed by UUFIE is wrapped in cedar siding charred by the shou sugi ban technique and crowned in a 23-foot-tall black steel roof. The most striking part of the design is that the cabin is partially sheathed in camouflaging one-way mirror glass. When it gets too cold on the terrace covered in log-end flooring, the living area, with its 14 recessed windows—half of them magnifying the landscape, half offering sightlines to peripheral rooms—provides serenity.

 

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