'castle cabin' pays homage to the fairytale woods of the pacific northwest

the castle cabin in the woods

as part of the ever-growing cabinland series, jacob witzling and sara underwood unveil their ‘castle cabin.’ after completing a handful of jewel-like cabins, the adventurous couple celebrates the completion of the project as their ‘forever home.’ with the help of family and friends, the project was completed in eighteen months. the structure comprises three, inter-connected timber volumes wrapped in shingles and topped by moss-covered roofs sculpted by triangular dormers — a signature cabinland element. the language of the dwelling reflects the duo’s larger body of work, including the diamond cabin, with its tiny separate wardrobe and pump house, and an octagonal cabin, which seems straight out of a fairytale.

the castle cabin celebrates the remote rainforest setting in the pacific northwest. while there are no roads on the woodland property, the structure was largely hand-built as a true labor of love. the couple cleared the site of discarded waste, and carried building materials onto the clearing by hand — all while playfully documenting their process for the cabinland video series. (watch it here!)

images courtesy jacob witzling and sara underwood

the growing cabinland

sara underwood and jacob witzling create their castle cabin for cabinland as a dream-like retreat in the woods. with its natural materials, and especially its mossy green roof, the dwellings appear to have emerged as an artifact of a fairytale forest. on social media, the duo celebrates the project’s completion, giving special thanks to jacob’s father, bix hamby ‘for taking our sketches and turning them into legitimate architectural designs. his conception of certain design features, like the collar tie system, was ingenious and his help with some of the more difficult calculations was invaluable.’

the couple further acknowledged the help of jacob’s brother ethan hamby ‘who spent an entire year living on the property helping us with this build. he shingled nearly the entire structure, hung the interior wall and ceiling material and sanded every inch of the house.’

from the rainforest to the desert

while the cabinland series, with its new castle cabin, has so far taken place within a pacific northwest context, the traveling couple can’t stay put for long. their adventuring spirit was made clear early on with the unveiling of the truck cabin built on top of a 1979 pickup. now, sara underwood and jacob witzling have announced their latest plans for cabinland, commenting: ‘we’ve already started working on more projects here in the rainforest as well as cabinland 2.0 in the desert of the southwest and we look forward to sharing everything with you!‘

the boardwalk is built of western red cedar
patterned timber handrails show a meticulous attention to craft