This Black Prefab Cabin in Uruguay "Melts" Into the Woods

The pandemic led Conrado, a Uruguayan living in London, to follow through on a long-held dream. For years, he’d wanted to build a vacation home on family property in the coastal town of Blancarena where he could gather with loved ones. After several Zoom meetings with prefab builder iHouse, a Montevideo-based firm he discovered while scrolling Instagram in April 2020, Conrado’s dream would soon become reality.

The undertaking, however, was ambitious from the start. Conrado wanted to spend the holidays at the new home, which would mean that iHouse would have to finish everything by December. To add to the challenges of a condensed timeline, Conrado was still in the UK.

"[It] was unusual because of the distance between us," admits Augustin Sica, iHouse’s project design manager. But by adapting practices and technology that enhanced the experience of remote collaboration—a silver lining to the pandemic, if there are any—iHouse was able to keep Conrado involved at every step. Sica and his firm easily shared photorealistic renders, plans, and references from previous works, all over video calls. In addition, Conrado’s mother was able to serve as an in-person liaison, accompanying the firm to the project site.

Designed to contemporize the small, wooden cabins that are common in the area, Casa ZGZ is a single-level, black-clad cabin comprising two modules pushed together lengthwise. The first includes the spaces that require plumbing: the bathrooms and the kitchen. The second module houses two bedrooms and the living and dining areas. The cabin’s exterior gets its black color from a natural oil-like finish that protects the wood, a treatment that also makes the home "melt into the shadow of the trees" for added privacy. Floor-to-ceiling windows, and decks at both the front and rear, further immerse the home into its setting.