Lightus Retreat

- Design Firm : Joongwon Architects + Peripherie Design Studio - Design Architect : Sunhyung Kim(AIA), Joongwon Architects - Project Architect : William Liow(AIA), Peripherie Design Studio - Builder : Sierra Sustainable Builders - Structural Engineering : Enertia Design - Photographer : Bojune Kwon Lighthus Retreat is a vacation home located in the wilderness of Lake Tahoe, a destination frequented by visitors near and far. Situated in a heavily wooded area, the design of the cabin stands away from traditional approaches of clear-cutting the site in favor of designing around trees. By carefully demarcating the building’s footprint around existing trees, a new typology of vacationing is born. Where urban environments are compact, efficient machines for living, this new typology is splayed out, folded, attenuated. Organized by the roof structure rather than the plan, the programmatic functions are placed in a sequential, ritualized fashion. While volumetrically open, the linear experience of space unfolds to allow the vacationer to discover the cabin through a succession of compression-openness / dark-light / smooth-textured. This particular experience intends to portray the idea that travel is not just about arriving at another destination, but rather, is a journey of the senses. Juxtaposing the natural Siberian Larch exterior siding with the synthetic polycarbonate ‘ends' of the cabin, it suggests this project is only a sliver of a conceptually continuous form, acknowledging the presence of ideas are much larger than itself. As the environment shapes the cabin, the cabin shapes light, and the light shapes us. Let the journey continue.