there are two kinds of “making” in the world that are part of the same continuum: there are those things that become of their own accord and progress towards a singular end; and there are those things that must be “freed” through craft and progress towards a design. the former is seen when, for example, an acorn becomes an oak; the latter when an oak becomes a chair.  however, the latter part of this continuum only arises when humans attune themselves to the inherent tendencies and latent capacities of place and material, listening mindfully for the whispers of those becomings that cannot become of their own accord.  

 

this project aims to operate within, and ultimately manifest, the sympathies between the becoming of nature and the creativity of ecologically-attuned human makers.  we like the idea that mies van der rohe offered, suggesting that architecture begins with placing one brick carefully upon another.  in a similar spirit, the hut leverages the humble but powerful qualities of dimensional lumber; by stacking sustainably grown, locally harvested, radiata pine, in a “crib” construction we establish a boundary between human and nature, but as martin heidegger once said of the greek peras (boundary), “a boundary is not that at which something stops but, as the greeks recognized, the boundary is that from which something begins its presencing.” we amplify this idea as the stacked wooden members yield to a nearly-immaterial edge; this edge simultaneously summons the forest into the meditation space and invites practitioners to project themselves into the sacred ground of the surrounding forest. the intentional juxtaposition, a reminder that one must constantly work to navigate the razors edge that fuses, but sometimes divides, humans and nature.