Freya’s Cabin by Studio Weave

Monday 12 December 2011

Freya’s Cabin by Studio Weave

Freya’s Cabin, by UK architects Studio Weave, is part of Freya and Robin, a project to build two structures on the banks of Kielder Water in Northumberland. The structures provide stopping points for visitors walking or cycling along the lakeside path, and exemplify the current move towards design as storytelling.

Central to the project is a fairytale, which is echoed in the cabin’s construction. The architects invented two characters by personifying two sites facing each other across the water and wrote a love story about a flower-loving goddess, Freya, who builds a cabin to entice the object of her affections, Robin, to row across the lake to her.

According to Studio Weave, Freya modelled the cabin on her flower press, taking tree branches and pressing them tight together to create an enchanted forest ceiling, then balancing it up high on the tallest, straightest stems that she could find. The sheets represent Freya’s golden tears; the copper alloy was chosen for its rich, golden colour and durable finish, and is fixed to allow movement as the structure breathes with the weather.