Although neither the design nor the location conform to traditional ideas of weekend cabins, this summer house in South Burgenland, Austria, is compellingly attractive. Indeed, I can’t stop looking at it. Its presence in the landscape is so dramatic — stark and linear and yet softened by the skin of larch wood. It evokes both a church and a barn but in fact, the inspiration for the structure actually comes from a local building style, kellerstöckel, or wine house (and the structure does in fact have a wine cellar).

Architect: Judith Benzer Architektur

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.