I’m always on the look out for great new ideas to use in some of our garden room designs. New materials, shapes colours or looking to nature for inspiration. Well this one has it all! In this article for Treehugger, Kimberley Mok, shows us round this beautiful little structure. I love the striking design, that equally blends in with its environment, through material choices. I definitely want to do a garden room some day with the ‘slick’ high pitched roof, clad in zinc. Along with the angled anthracite grey windows and doors.

Anyway don’t just take my word for it have a look and see what you think…

Topped with a gable roof that has been clad with metal, the cabin has been designed to blend in with its surroundings as much as possible. To accomplish this, the exterior of the cabin features cedar siding, which weathers naturally to a soft grayish brown, so that the structure blends in with the rest of the forest. Even the cabin’s water catchment tank and pump house have been hidden and clad with cedar. The landscaping has been planted with native flora, and the driveway uses crushed basalt rather than asphalt. The retaining walls contain rocks that were unearthed on-site during construction.

The cabin has a distinctive form inspired by the modern sea cabins of Norway, and has been designed to glow like a lantern at night when it’s occupied. As Brink explains on Dwell:

“[The cabin is located at] a 4,000-foot elevation and a cooler climate. It’s all about nature. We wanted to do something different here with a more modern Scandinavian design.”

To offer a bit of contrast and to signify the entrance, the cabin’s front door has been painted a bright red.

One great feature here is the cabin’s 14-foot-high ceilings, which give the impression of a much larger space. There’s also a lovely ceiling fan here to provide a bit of air circulation. The generous height and width of the glazing here permits one to feel the connection between the inside to the outside, whether the doors are open or closed, or shaded with the roll-down blinds.

Kūono’s location not only offers a welcome interlude from the daily hustle and bustle of life, but also potentially some unexpected thrills, thanks to its proximity to Kīlauea, an active volcano that one can visit in the nearby Volcanoes National Park.