firewood cabin in belvédère gets dismantled as residents remove a piece

LE Belvedere Cabin in Haute Savoie, France

Le Belvedere hut is not just an ordinary small cabin. It finds its roots in the history of its place – the dense oak forest in Haute Savoie, France – and pays homage to the primordial state of the territory before the wooden hut was built. Architects Louis Cayol and Ángel Aguilera constructed the cabin to reminisce about the clearing made in the forest, the time when the trees were cut down for open space.

all photos by David Foessel, via Le Festival Des Cabanes

These products of nature might have been felled for future architectural use, but the architects wanted to bring back what the land lost, at least through its already-distilled purpose. The wooden hut, whose official name is ‘Looking For The View, I Found The Forest’, is composed of two elements. The frame is made of pine wood slabs while stacks of chopped oak firewood fill in the hollow spaces of Le Belvedere cabin.

The architects are honoring the trees’ once fruitful growth within the forest, and at the same time, they are toying with the idea of providing warmth for the residents by burning the logs of firewood inserted in the frame. The way Le Belvedere cabin was constructed gives the impression that the wooden hut can be used for a lifetime, so long as the frame stands still.

close-up view of the wooden hut

Materials from a local sawmill

Louis Cayol and Ángel Aguilera considered the volume of the hut which in the end represents the number of trees that were cut on-site, and the materials used for construction came from a local sawmill. Just like imagined, the architects see the stacks of wood injected into the frame as a source of wooden materials for the residents and local organizations within the area should they need them.

the materials used come from a local sawmill

Aside from paying a tribute to cutting down the trees in the forest, the architects assembled the wooden hut as their personal interpretation of a physical and sensorial experience, or making the invisible visible in terms of bringing back what was lost. For them, the trunks of wood refer to the native tradition, and the box shape of the hut is their way of questioning people’s impact on the landscape.

The hut is located in the town of Faverges-Seythenex in South-Eastern France, and Le Belvedere cabin was a part of the annual Le Festival Des Cabanes, an architectural event that brings together hut and cabin designs and helps raise awareness on the interconnected relationship between people and nature.

the firewood cabin pays homages to the chopped down trees