When is a bridge the right solution for access to your cabin?
Cabin sites often slope away from entry to the lake or river below. For shallow slopes such sites are often referred to as walkout lots, where standard designs are living on upper level with a recreation room and kid’s bedrooms below.
In a few instances we flip the design to entry and bedrooms above and social space below. This is the case in my own cabin where we preferred the social space to be on the same level as to where we have an existing guest cabin, and to be closer to the water activities well below.
We currently are repeating the flipped scenario for a rebuild project further down our lake, but the walkout site necessitates a bridge to reach the entry level. The bridge will be a safe way to enter the cabin where stairs are out of the snow and rain and guest luggage can be quickly dropped into bedrooms. Also, the bridge will present a dramatic arrival to this realm of repose.
Bridges have been employed in our cabin designs for several steep sloping sites. On the North Shore of Lake Superior where the view is everything and one is not likely to put a toe in the water, we flipped the normal plan for a three level cabin with the living space up top and bedrooms on two levels below. With a lesser slope on the Wow Cabin near Finland, MN we bridge to the middle level for social activities and have bedrooms above and below.
We’ve designed two cabins on the steep slopes along the western shore of Pickerel Lake in northeast South Dakota. Both involve entering at the top of a three level structure. In each the entry level features bedrooms and the middle level is living space. An additional bedroom and beach equipment storage is on the lake level. Each has an eastern deck off the middle level with panoramic views over the lake. The Mother’s Place project is designed to reflect the family tradition of life on Pickerel Lake. It’s banked into the hill in such a way to access the structure directly from atop the hill.
But a few steps away the hill presented a different design challenge and thus for the Stargazer cabin we leap across an entry bridge to the top level of the cabin. The owner says of this, ” The bridge is a landmark on the lake, It makes a grand entrance and exit for our time at our retreat.”
