Design studio Graypants has been in business since 2007, the collaborative project of Seattle's Seth Grizzle and Jon Junker, who, though trained as architects, waited seven years to launch their first building. Called the Garage, it's an open, multi-purpose space built on a lake near Emerald City, that reflects the lines of the original structure that stood in its place — yes, a garage.
"Mystery, memory, poetry and light," write Graypants. "Reinvigorating a tired, post World War II structure (aka: shitty garage) which was worn and forgotten. The existing was rich with stories, its walls layered with past impressions of formwork and family dinners. Separating, and then joyously recombining materials to impart them with new life. Scratched boards become a textured backdrop defining new functions, while the remaining structure is dismantled into flooring, concealing beds and lounges beneath. Reclaimed pine, a discarded basin, and a century-old stove introduce the memories of others: a remix of the familiar and the novel, the past and the future.
"The garage aims to make design mysterious. Making mundane tasks of our lives into opportunities that create beauty through joyful interaction. Providing a canvas that allows imagination to make new old and old new. The new becoming a theatre to watch the old gradually fade away. This space wasn’t about ordinary…it was about touching on boundaries of what is ordinary."
Indeed, the short film found below the photos was set inside the project and gives the structure an arty, trippy, avant garde sheen, adding layers of complexity and imagination to what at first glance seems the simplest of spaces. (Note: mild nudity ensues...)
Weekend Cabin isn’t necessarily about the weekend, or cabins. It’s about the longing for a sense of place, for shelter set in a landscape…for something that speaks to refuge and distance from the everyday. Nostalgic and wistful, it’s about how people create structure in ways to consider the earth and sky and their place in them. It’s not concerned with ownership or real estate, but what people build to fulfill their dreams of escape. The very time-shortened notion of “weekend” reminds that it’s a temporary respite. To see more weekend cabins, visit the Weekend Cabin channel page.