A Filmmaker Self-Builds a Rustic Off-Grid Cabin Deep in a Canadian Forest for $64K
This clifftop home on the east coast of Canada was entirely built by the owner—who had no experience building a house—and his friends.
This clifftop home on the east coast of Canada was entirely built by the owner—who had no experience building a house—and his friends.
Escaping the city and building a home in the wilderness from the ground up is a dream for many—but too often reality sets in, and the technicalities involved relegate this desire to the realm of fantasy. A Canadian filmmaker, however, recently brought his dream to life on a remote forested clifftop on the east coast of Canada.
"Living in the city as a teenager, I always looked forward to going to my friend’s family cottage in the country," he says. "It always felt right to be in this old, rustic home—I loved the history of the place, the charisma of the land, and the open space."
The owner was motivated to build his own home to avoid a mortgage and to gain the know-how to undertake his own maintenance and repairs. "I was craving the personal challenge to cultivate a home for myself," he says. "As it was the beginning of a new adventure, I wanted it to be personal. Also, practically speaking, if I built each piece of the home by hand, I would have a good sense of how to solve problems or improve it, without having to ask anyone else to journey through the forest, down the trail, and up the cliff to make an adjustment."
Canadian Castaway
When he decided to build his own home and set down roots after a decade spent traveling and filming documentaries, he wanted to recreate the feeling of this childhood memory by crafting a simple home from timber and other raw materials. "I would rather live in a cabin than a condo or a house that is merely a design trip," he says. "I wanted a comfortable home that is inviting to live and function freely in."
"I’ve been looking at cabins and small homes since I was a teenager," says the owner. "I knew I wanted the home to have a small footprint, but for the interior space to still feel open and expansive." This informed the interior planning, as he knew he didn’t want the upper floors to completely enclose the ground floor. By minimizing the second floor and including an open third-floor loft bedroom, he was able to maintain a spacious feeling and avoid making the interior spaces feel too enclosed.
Canadian Castaway
He sketched an initial design on the back of a pizza box, and found a site on the east coast of Canada on a clifftop overlooking a river. The former farm was tucked into a dense forest of yellow birch, oak, hemlock, and sugar maple trees. "Before I began building, I camped and spent time getting to know the space," he says. "It’s like what the British artist Andy Goldsworthy describes as ‘shaking hands with a place.’ Just because I bought the land, doesn’t mean it belongs to me."
The owner is a freelance documentary filmmaker who found that city living was stifling his creativity. "I have always been more creative in a vast space," he says. "So, being surrounded by wilderness really attracted me." It was important that the surrounding forest not be dramatically impacted by the build, and only five trees were removed during the construction.
Canadian Castaway
See the full story on Dwell.com: A Filmmaker Self-Builds a Rustic Off-Grid Cabin Deep in a Canadian Forest for $64K
