Dogtrot
Cabin
The Dogtrot Cabin was designed for a young couple
who spend their weeks teaching and acting in Manhattan and their weekends
growing vegetables in upstate New York.
Their request was simple: a modest cabin they could build themselves, that
could operate year round with minimal costs and that could be realized for
under $20,000.
Our response was equally simple. The structure is wood framed with no unusual
parts or connections. Six concrete pier
foundations can be dug and formed over a weekend. Our construction drawings went beyond what we
would provide a professional builder and broke down the structure into parts
that could be built separately and later combined to further simplify the
process.
Year round use is encouraged through the
incorporation of the traditional “dogtrot” form that separates an insulated and
heated room at one end from a composting toilet and store room at the other end
with a covered porch. The roof of the
covered porch uses translucent corrugated panels to allow light in while
keeping the rain out when the space is used as an outdoor living room in the
summer.
The cabin is oriented north-south in order to
expose the large glass doors at the south end to the warming winter sun. An overhanging sleeping loft provides sun
shading for the same doors during the summer months. The wedge shape presents minimal area to the
prevailing winter winds to minimizing cool drafts while the open porch allows
the prevailing summer winds to cool the interior. In the Fall and Spring transition months, two
large sliding wood doors can partially or completely close off the porch to
keep out cool winds.
