The Sol Duc Cabin: A 350 Square Foot Cabin On Stilts

The Sol Duc cabin is a 350 square-foot stilted retreat designed by Olson Kundig Architects. The cabin was built for a client who fly-fishes on the Olympic Peninsula, and when the owner isn’t present it can be completely shuttered for extra security. By raising the structure off of the ground level, the retreat avoids being damaged by the occasional flooding of a nearby river.

The Sol Duc contains two levels, the entryway, kitchen and dining areas are all on the first floor, and a sleeping loft is located on the second floor. A cantilevered steel deck extends from the lower level, providing unimpeded views of the river.

The structure of the cabin is made up of unfinished mild steel and Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs), with four steel columns carrying the entire load of the retreat. The majority of the building elements were prefabricated offsite, including the steel framing and panels, the roof, shutters and stair system, allowing the builders to keep the amount of construction wastage to a minimum.

The sleeping loft is composed of the owners store of leftover lumber – they used 2×4’s that were stacked and glued to create the floor joists, repurposing the timber instead of throwing it out.

The cantilevered roof provides solar shading and protection from coastal storms. Each of the cabins shutters can be opened or closed manually, sliding on hardware that was originally designed for sliding barn doors.

Via Olson Kundig Architects