Wooden Hut

The starting points for this wooden hut, designed by Kawahara-Krause, were two completely independent circumstances.

One was a heap of firewood in the client’s garden that needed a place to be stacked and dried. The other was the wish of the religious clients for a place of contemplation and prayer in their house. The design for the wooden hut combines these two different wishes. It is a small private chapel in the clients’ garden that is built of firewood.

The hut consists of five wooden frames that are stacked with firewood, thus forming the outer walls. The comfortably dim space inside is spotted by countless rays of light sparkling through the logs. In the course of time, dried wood is being used and replaced by new wood resulting in a constant change in the walls of the hut. The stacking pattern changes as well as the colour of the wood.

The space is created by only two walls. They open up towards the entrance and narrow the space towards the cross thus directing the movement to the inside. The deep roof shades the space underneath while the wind passes through the hut in summer. By using the on site firewood in the garden and granting it a new use, an unusual space emerges just a few steps outside the house providing a shelter for contemplation and prayer away from daily life.

Wooden Hut, Leonberg, Germany
Program: chapel
Architects: Kawahara-Krause
Construction company: Bartholomaeus
Area: 11 sqm
Completion: 2013