Weekend Cabin: Muskoka, Ontario

by steve casimiro on February 17, 2012 · 2 comments

2 responses

Here’s the plan: First, get a boat. Second, earn enough coin to have a house for my boat. Third, build boathouse that looks a lot like this one. Fourth, move into boathouse. Fifth, rarely leave.

Located at Muskoka Lakes, Ontario, Canada, the 600-square-foot structure is a renovation of an existing boathouse. It has a minimalist but warm bedroom, kitchenette, and bathroom — and, misguidedly, if you ask me, a big ole television on the wall.

Architect: Christopher Simmonds

Photos by Peter Fritz

Weekend Cabin isn’t necessarily about the weekend, or cabins. It’s about the longing for a sense of place, for shelter set in a landscape…for something that speaks to refuge and distance from the everyday. Nostalgic and wistful, it’s about how people create structure in ways to consider the earth and sky and their place in them. It’s not concerned with ownership or real estate, but what people build to fulfill their dreams of escape. The very time-shortened notion of “weekend” reminds that it’s a temporary respite.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Matt Freeman February 18, 2012 at 15:09: What these beautiful shots don’t show are obnoxious jet skiers buzzing by, the drunken Bay street boys and their kids “contributing to the man-made reef” (it’s tradition amongst cetain people to “sink”empty beer bottles while boating), or the general attempt by Muskokan summer people to turn the lakes into a slightly wetter versions of the city.

In this case, context is everything. Better to continue north on the 400 a bit to Algonquin Park…

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DAC February 27, 2012 at 10:05: I’m with Matt. Head away from the Big lakes (Joseph, Muskoka, Rosseau), and you stand a better chance of avoiding all the city kids who have second houses (not weekend cabins) and a predeliction to ruining a stellar part of the province.

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