What is a cabin?
I’ve mentioned Lou Ureneck’s cabin project as one I’m following, and in his comments, someone asked a great question: What is a cabin?
The comments there bring an interesting mix and Lou writes:
It’s a good question, though not so easily answered. A cabin is not a house, though it may be a home. Some cabins are small and some are big. So, size won’t help us, though the bigger the structure the more likely we are to approach its claim on the title “cabin” with skepticism. The concept of cabin is closely connected to logs but clearly many cabins are not built from laid-up logs. Wood seems essential, however.
Dale Mulfinger, in The Cabin: Inspiration for the Classic American Getaway
writes:
We all have a cabin memory. Or a cabin dream. A little place whee the family vacationed when we were young,. Tiny, cot filled cabins at summer camp. The cabin we built when the kids were small, — or the cabin we want to build when the kids are grown. We remember our own cabins, or recall some shared national memory like Lincoln’s or Thoreau’s cabin.
The truth is, in function, if not always in form– modern cabins are no different than those historical ones, expect that people today usually don’t live in their cabins full time; we escape to them instead.
Mulfinger goes on to describe the cabins in his book as well as cabins in general, limiting them to less than 1,200 square feet.
A cabin makes a great escape and a wonderful full time home. For many, cabin implies a more primative or rustic level of finish detail, however, some cabins are sleek, refined, and polished. In my own space and design, I’ve purposely left some edges and details ragged, to speed the process of developing a patina of a lived-in space. To other tastes, it may appear to be ragged or unfinished.
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