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Clever Layout Fits Two Couples in Tiny Sommerhaus Piu

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The Somerhaus Piu, which is German for “More Summerhouse” is a simple summer cabin ingeniously designed by industrial designers Patrick Frey and Björn Götte to offer more haus in less space for two couples holidaying.

By floating the core services in the center instead of at the edges of the simple structure, the maximum distance is created between the two bedrooms in the small space.

Sliding doors for the bedrooms go to the full ceiling height, giving a sense of airy spaciousness, as does the unobstructed view it provides, in a way that a normal sized door into the bedroom wouldn’t.

Because of this, the bedside chest is read neutrally as “public space” furniture, making the space feel larger than it is.

The wood stove is enough to heat the entire small space on cold nights. It is centrally located in the shared space.

But mostly the cabin is intended as a summer getaway. Because it is shared, it is adaptable, and potentially more sustainable both environmentally and economically for both of the young couples.

The cabin, built for just $157,000, was prefabricated offsite and hauled in and reassembled at the lakeside setting 40 miles from Berlin.

Inside it measures only 650 square feet, but the deck all around it enhances the sense of abundant space in all seasons, while adding 375 feet of cheap summertime space for outdoor living for the cost of just the flooring.

“Weekend Cabin isn’t necessarily about the weekend, or cabins,” says one of the architects, Patrick Frey. “It’s about the longing for a sense of place, for shelter set in a landscape…for something that speaks to refuge and distance from the everyday.

Nostalgic and wistful, it’s about how people create structure in ways to consider the earth and sky and their place in them. It’s not concerned with ownership or real estate, but what people build to fulfill their dreams of escape. The very time-shortened notion of “weekend” reminds that it’s a temporary respite.”

Via Weekend Journal