Holiday Cabins in Mirasaka, Japan

Set on a wooded slope, these children’s holiday cabins have a simple timber frame construction clad externally with cedar boarding. The roofs are covered with grey sheet steel. In conjunction with the low-level windows in the main space, the glass-louvre windows in the projecting boxes at the top of the building form an efficient system of natural ventilation. A ladder from the veranda leads to a viewing bench over the roof. Climbing plants will grow up the cut-off tree stems at the side of the building and along the beams of a pergola over the roof, providing shade in summer and helping to integrate the cubic forms of the cabins into their natural surroundings. The shadows of the trees on the green-stained cladding also create a kind of camouflage.