A crystal-clear lake, surrounded by dense pine forest. Sandy soils interwoven with roots. And a wonderful silence, broken only by the sounds of nature. In this idyllic setting this beautiful forest property is situated. In the 1920s, it was part of an artists’ colony. Today, it serves as a refuge and place of relaxation.

Originally, a simple wooden summer house from 1926 stood on this property in the southern region of Berlin. This charming little house was in such a desolate state that renovation was not an option though. The conceptual approach was to recreate the atmosphere of the dark forest cottage, its proportions and simple construction in the new weekend house. The building is positioned exactly on the former site, in the center of the property. The new cabin was entirely built as a wooden structure, like its forerunner. From the outside, it is clad in dark brown glazed pine paneling.
With its simple form and understated appearance, it blends into the natural surroundings and gives the impression that it has always been there. At the same time, the external appearance, with its slightly overhanging roof and dark wooden façade, plays with the mythologies and fairy tales of houses in the forest.

The dark building is accentuated by a building incision and a few deliberately placed façade openings with extra-wide frames. In contrast to the dark brown building, these openings and frames are painted white. These color accents also refer to the interior, which is lined on all sides with white-painted pine cladding.
The outer and inner board cladding has a milled round profile. This design feature for the ceiling, roof and walls gives the space a specific atmosphere and is also a reference to the façades and partial interior pane ling of the building that existed before.

The centerpiece of the weekend home is the main living and recreation room. This room extends to the roof with an open space and naturally includes the other areas, such as the gallery above the large western overhang. The rather narrow room appears much larger thanks to the façade-wide glazing on the ground floor and the spatial extensions of the adjoining veranda.
The kitchen and bathroom are designed as separate rooms and are, like the living room, accessible via the small corridor.
This Corridor also accommodates the built-in pine plywood furniture such as the wardrobe and storage cupboards.
The kitchen is designed as an open, yet independent room with a large opening to the living room and a large panoramic window of the same size with a view into the forest. The furniture was also customized entirely from pine plywood.
In addition to the rooms on the ground floor, the sleeping berths are located on the upper floor.

Building project: Forest house | New building of a vacation home in the pine forest of Brandenburg
Client: private
Completion: 2010
Photographer: Clemens Poloczek, Werner Huthmacher
Architectural films: Ertzui Film

The property, which is located in the heart of a small town called Eibenstock, is surrounded by the charming landscape and the hills of the Ore Mountains nature park.
The architecture of these mountain villages is dominated by the traditional building types, which consciously respond to the harsh climate of the area. The fundamental idea of this project is to reconcile these local traditions with a simple construction in a contemporary architectural language.

The angled structure of the roof, consisting of five differently pitched faces, was developed based on the property gradation and inspired by the significant steep roofs of the region.
The large building alcoves under the big, slanted roof clearly mark the most used areas and the main entrances to the generally rather closed shape of the building.
At the same time, these areas offer protection from snow and rain.
Despite being a single-storey construction with a steep roof, the compact structure presents itself confidently next to the multi-storey administration building and the surrounding neighborhood.

Due to its direct proximity to the forests of the Ore Mountains and the forestry office as users, the construction, consisting of a timber frame structure with standing-axis construction made of timber truss as a space frame was a natural choice. The reinforcement of the walls and the internal cladding is provided by a double layering of OSB wood composite panels. A reinforced concrete floor slab forms the overall foundation of the building, and, through surface smoothing, also serves as the finished floor.
Last but not least, these simple, archaic materials and constructions take the economic aspect and the use as a warehouse, garage and functional building into mind.

The buildings atmosphere and aura were achieved by the choice of the exterior roof and wall cladding.
Responding to the user’s forestry work, as well as the roofing with slate shingles, which is typical for the region, the entire building is also completely covered in shingles. Though instead of slate, the shingles used in this project are red cedar- wooden shingles, which are traditionally used in the mountain area.
In contrast to the scaly brittle material of the wooden shingles, the large alcoves were completely lined with surfaces of smooth, metallic shimmering aluminum panels on all sides.
All entrances, such as doors and garage doors, are integrated flush within these alcove areas.
This simple, traditional, yet specific building’s skin evokes a split stem with outer rough, dark bark and an inner, light and smooth core.

Building project: sharply cut | new construction of a farm building for forest district 14 in Eibenstock
Client: State of Saxony, represented by SIB NL Zwickau
Completion: 2010
Photographer: Werner Huthmacher, Bertram Bölkow
Architectural films: Ertzui Film