Architecture Wednesday: Alpine Cabin

Ah, the Alpine Cabin, in the French Alps; a perfect Christmas getaway.

But this is not your grandfather’s cabin, although it could have been. Originally built in the 1870s, Alpine Cabin underwent a two-year renovation on its 140th birthday and the results are stunning.

The cabin, with views of Mont Blanc, is a blend of rustic wood and stone, eclectic furnishings, and artistic design. And so, it feels less like an ordinary cabin and more like a New York loft plucked from Manhattan and set down in Megève, France.

And while the inside is a mixture of art and stone and timber and glass, the outside is that perfect Christmas card cabin. But more than that, the Alpine Cabin is also an important rehabilitation project created by a design team that put sustainability and ecology alongside art and design. Architects and craftsmen were specifically requested by the homeowner to update the cabin in a way that preserved it and respected its history.

Teams of workers winterize the once dilapidated older structure and reinvented it in more environmentally, and stylistically, efficient ways. This required a new roof, new floors, and new walls; it required a reorganization of space with a special request from the homeowner’s: all of the wood used in the rebuild was local or harvested from the original structure.

But while all that is outside, the inside is where you live; the villa has two levels, with the ground floor featuring the guest bedrooms and the master bedroom in an upper loft. The main floor is the massive open-plan living area, library, conversation areas, kitchen and dining, with high ceilings working in conjunction with large  windows that rise to meet the ceiling.

And let’s not forget the artistry of the kitchen island, or the stone work; or the furnishings. The decorative details reflect the adventures of the homeowner, telling a story through art, furnishings and figures from all over the world.

It’s a fabulous mix of the old and the new; the modern and the rustic; the classic and the eclectic; art, as a home.

In the snow. In France. At Christmas.

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