She Built a 330-Square-Foot Cabin in One of Washington’s Biggest Outdoors Destinations

The tiny concrete retreat packs in the storage, giving its owner a launchpad for skiing, running, and getting away from it all.

Text by

Grace Bernard

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Catherine Humblet started making regular drives from Seattle to Mazama along North Cascades Highway 10 years ago. Located in Washington’s Methow Valley, the small town is home to snow-crested mountain peaks, wildflower-dusted trails, and rivers teeming with fish. A mecca for outdoor enthusiasts and endurance athletes, it was the kind of place Catherine—who counts herself as both—could delight in cross-country skiing (the area has the largest trail system in North America), mountain biking, and trail running year-round.

GO’C designed a tiny concrete-and-steel cabin in Mazama, Washington, that gives their client, Catherine Humblet, year-round access to the region’s network of running and cross-country skiing trails.

After a decade of coming to Mazama, Catherine, who works in supply chain management, started looking for a vacation property where she could detach from her laptop and instead connect with the outdoors. "The opposite of being in front of a computer is going for a six hour run," she says. While renting a cabin on one trip to the area, Lydia, Catherine’s dog, escaped on "a solo adventure." During her four-hour search for Lydia, she stumbled across a piece of land surrounded by ponderosa pines that had mountain views and good sun exposure. By March 2016 she was the official owner of the four-acre parcel, eventually building a cabin on it.

The cabin’s concrete walls are in dialogue with the rocks poking out of the ground. Setting the home into the hillside improves its thermal performance.

One of the benefits of setting the home back into the hill is that Catherine and her dog, Lydia, can use the steel roof like a deck.

For the design, Catherine approached architects Jon Gentry and Aimée O’Carroll, founding partners of Seattle firm GO'C. Originally she wanted a traditional two-bed, one-and-a-half bath home with a garage, but soon changed her mind. "I had a townhome in Seattle. I really didn’t need a full-size second home," Catherine recalls. The team pivoted, creating a 330-square-foot space for Catherine and her dog, which serves as an outpost for adventures. Nicknamed Tinyleaf, the small home’s open plan includes a bed "nook," kitchen, combined living/dining space, and a bathroom.

Floor-to-ceiling glazing keeps Catherine in touch with the wooded setting when she isn’t out on a run.

Catherine had spent time camping and hiking on the site before hiring GO’C, which gave her a distinct perspective, says Gentry. "She had a good sense of solar patterns and views through first-hand experience. She brought us rocks, sticks, and moths from the site early on. That impacted the weathering steel exterior, which picks up on some of the stones from the site." The architects paired the metal facade with a concrete structure and foundation, materials chosen in part for how they’ll patina. Plus, compared with wood, they stand up better to wildfires, which are an inherent risk in the area.

The steel and concrete were chosen partly for how’d they weather into the setting.

A picture window positioned at the foot of the bed gives Catherine a glimpse outside without having to get up.

The Methow Valley encounters snowy winters and dry, hot summers. To allow Catherine to use the cabin comfortably year-round, GO’C wedged its concrete structure into a hillside, which helps keep it cooler when temperatures rise, and warm when they drop. One of the unexpected advantages of positioning it that way is that she can easily climb onto the flat roof for views.

"We asked, How do we maximize every inch of space and design storage in a way that works with the flow of the house?"

—Catherine Humblet, resident

The concrete structure forms a firewood storage area at the TK end of the home.

GO’C finished the 330-square-foot interiors in maple plywood, creating storage in as many places as possible for Catherine to store clothes and outdoors gear.

The architects added a cork wall behind the bed to create a sense of warmth. Directly above the kitchen counter is a skylight.

The combination of a small footprint and a not insubstantial amount of recreational gear meant Catherine would need smart storage solutions. "Storage was absolutely everything," she asserts. "From the beginning we asked, How do we maximize every inch of space and design storage in a way that works with the flow of the house?"

Gentry and O’Carroll compare their strategy to a ship’s cabin, inserting cubbies and nooks for storage wherever they could, all in maple plywood. A unit dividing the bathroom and bedroom, for example, provides floor-to-ceiling storage space. A raised bed makes room for large pull-out drawers where Catherine keeps everyday items. Concealed behind the drawers, which are removable, is yet more space, which Catherine uses to store off-season gear. A thick wall between the kitchen and bathroom has pull-out side panels that function as a pantry and utility storage for the main living space, with bathroom storage on the opposite side.

Come spring when snow begins to melt, a scupper built into the roof diverts the runoff.

As small as it is, the cabin gives Catherine unlimited access to the area’s cross-country skiing and trail running.

In part, building a small, outpost-style home was a financially conservative decision, but it also meant Catherine could move in sooner than she would have had it been a large build. Ultimately it provides her with flexibility; down the road, she might build something bigger, she says, and make Tinyleaf an office, guesthouse, or yoga studio. But like a good run in the woods, perhaps, half the fun is not knowing exactly what’s around the bend.