The partners of new Vancouver studio Scott & Scott Architects created this remote snowboarding cabin for their own use at the northern end of Vancouver Island.

The Alpine Cabin by Susan and David Scott is lifted off the ground on six columns made of douglas fir tree trunks, which pierce through the rooms on both storeys.

The exterior clad in cedar, intended to weather to the tone of the surrounding forest, and the interior finished in planed fir.

"The construction approach was determined to avoid machine excavation, to withstand the annual snowfall, to resist the dominant winds and to build in a manner which elevates the building above the height of the accumulated snow on the ground," say the architects.

The majority of the ground floor is taken up by a combined living room and kitchen, but also includes a bathroom and sauna. Upstairs there are two bedrooms with a study in between.

One corner of the ground floor is cut away to create a spacious porch where firewood and snowboarding equipment can be stored.

The cabin is located in a community-operated alpine recreation area 1300 metres above sea level and is accessible by a gravel road for five months of the year, but otherwise equipment and supplies must be carried on a sledge to the site.

The building is completely off-grid, heated by a wood-burning stove and using water that must be fetched from nearby and carried in.

The architects built the project themselves with the help of friends. "The cabin was constructed out of a desire to directly design and build as a singular act, to work with the freedom one experiences when snowboarding, and in a manner which is centered in the adventure and not bound heavily in pre-determination," they explain.

Susan and David Scott launched their own practice in February after twelve years of working for established firms.

Other winter retreats on Dezeen include a holiday home that Peter Zumthor designed for himself and his family and one that's been squeezed into the passageway between two farm buildings in northern Italy.

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