An architect crafts an off-the-grid cabin as a gift to his father.
The father of architect Greg Dutton wished to build a cabin on the family farm, located within Appalachian Ohio and home to 400 heads of cattle. Dutton, of Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio-based Midland Architecture, presented this design as his father's birthday present in 2012. Finished in 2014, the 900-square-foot cabin overlooks a valley and a 13-acre lake. It serves as a weekend house and guest residence. During the cabin's construction it became clear that connecting it to the water and electrical grid would be prohibitively expensive. As a result, the cabin operates entirely off-the-grid, and its sustainable features became an exciting aspect of the design process for the architect and his parents. The cabin's earthy and rustic exterior belies a number of strategies that lets the residence operate entirely off-the-grid.
