Cabin of curiosities: a minimalist mountain retreat.
Allandale House, a so-called “Cabin of Curiosities,” is an A-frame vacation home for “an idiosyncratic conoisseur and her family,” one that collects “wine, rare books, stuffed birds and an elk mount.” Yes, it’s the best copy from an architect’s website we’ve read in a long time, too.
It doesn’t surprise me, however, coming from William O’Brien Jr., a young assistant architecture professor at MIT and principal of an independent design practice in Cambridge, MA that was recently awarded the 2011 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Designers and was a finalist for the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program.
The house in question is a lust-worthy little gem, a sleek-meets-rustic getaway home I would most happily leave the city for. The spacious interior (created by positioning “the interior surface of the ceiling/wall to deviate from the roof surface as it nears the floor plane to become plumb”) allows for plenty of natural light, open space as well as cozy nooks in which to curl up with a glass of wine and all those aforementioned rare books. I can’t think of a more enviable mountain retreat.
photos by william o’brien jr.
