Colorado Lodge / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA

Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Exterior Photography, Windows
© Lauren Moore

Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Interior Photography, Bedroom, Windows, BedColorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Image 3 of 31Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Interior Photography, Bathroom, Windows, SinkColorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Image 5 of 31Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - More Images+ 26

  • Design Team: Lauren Jordan, Marcus McInerney
  • Clients: Colorado Lodge
  • Collaborators: SheetrockLA
  • City: Big Bear Lake
  • Country: United States
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Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Image 5 of 31
© Lauren Moore

Text description provided by the architects. The Colorado Lodge is an ongoing and iterative experiment in design, construction and friendship. Functionally speaking, it’s a collection of for-rent cabins situated on 2 acres of beautiful land in Big Bear, California. Conceptually speaking, it is an exploration into ways of being with / in / out / side nature.

Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Image 3 of 31
© Marcus McInerney

The annotated history of the project is as follows: About two years ago we first cross paths with the property and after thoroughly not thinking through the magnitude of the property and project, our dear friend purchases it.  The cabins are in a terrible way, but the land is gorgeous and it’s uniquely situated in a way that it’s both pleasantly isolated but also close to town.  The sparks are there and thus the romance begins. 

Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Interior Photography, Bedroom, Windows, Bed
© Lauren Moore
Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Image 15 of 31
Plans
Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Interior Photography, Bathroom, Windows, Sink
© Lauren Moore

Our architectural approach / strategy is to leave the exterior facades of the cabins intact, neutralize them through painting them black, and then completely rebuild the interiors.  A completely new thing inhabits the shell of an old thing.  Within the interiors, we use a minimalist, cost-effective materials palette that riffs on notions of nature + artificiality.  

Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Interior Photography, Countertop
© Lauren Moore

Plywood, a highly processed but “natural” material, harkens to the forest and towering trees hovering just outside the building shell; the wild animal stares at the animal trapped in a cage at the zoo.  For the ground plane surface of the cabins we use linoleum that looks like little sticks of mulch; the natural ground outside is dusted with little sticks of mulch.  What is outside, what is inside?  To inhabit a shelter is to cross a threshold, nothing more.

Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Countertop, Sink, Lighting
© Lauren Moore

Our landscape approach / strategy is to “landscape” as little as possible, because it’s a fool’s errand to garden in the woods. We build a long fence that blocks an undesirable view to a neighboring property and that also creates a compound-like quality to the property.  The property is now a room within the forest; you’re inside, outside.  

Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Image 7 of 31
© Marcus McInerney

We build wood partitions that reduce the visual presence of cars as little as possible, these screens float between trees and create previously invisible divisions.  In the near future we will build simple, elemental amenities (decks, boardwalks) that don’t tell you what to do or how to live, more as abstract offerings to sit or lay on, look up at the trees, and breathe.

Colorado Lodge  / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA - Exterior Photography, Windows, Forest
© Lauren Moore

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Project location

Address:Big Bear Lake, California, United States

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Colorado Lodge / Terremoto Landscape + EARL + SheetrockLA" 11 Sep 2019. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/924564/colorado-lodge-terremoto-landscape-plus-earl-plus-sheetrockla> ISSN 0719-8884

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