If you didn’t know know better, you’d think the Refugi Liepthaus in the Alps was just another quaint log cabin from afar. But if you get close, you’ll realise that those ridges on the walls are not logs but a beautiful brutalist exterior. It’s awesome.
Refugi Liepthaus is an award-winning house designed by Nickisch Sano Walder Architekten in Flims, Switzerland. The site actually used to be the home to a historic (presumably beyond repair) all-wood barn, but the architects replaced it with this all-concrete creation last year. Pouring concrete, after all, is usually cheaper than restoring historic wood structures.
Impressions of the original structure can still be seen on the building’s exterior where the old logs were used for the concrete mould so that the grain of the wood is visible in the finished material. Urlaubs Arkitektur, a vacation home rental service that specialises in unique houses and currently rents the concrete cabin, describes the effect as “a fossilized version of the old barn.”
The cabin sure is a pretty fossil, too. Inside, the cold, clean lines of the concrete make for an aesthetic that feels almost futuristic. With a fireplace on one end and a bedroom on the other end, the cabin’s layout is delightfully simple. It’s most definitely an excellent honeymoon destination for a couple of nihilists looking to escape. The only thing missing is the warm, piney smell of the logs. But hey, that’s what fires are for. [Urlaubs Arkitektur]
Pictures: Ralph Feiner via Urlaubs Architektur