I was going to tell you about a self-published cottage book that arrived in our office this winter, and then I found a link to a website that knocked books right out of my head.
Have you seen freecabinporn.com? Go there when you have time to cruise leisurely through the images of cabins (and camps, cottages, sheds, boathouses, log homes, trailors, treehouses, ice huts, sugar shacks, and other mostly rural forms of shelter) from around the world.
The Atlantic magazine has its own take on What it means that Urban Hipsters Like Staring at Pictures of Cabins, but it didn’t stop me from scrolling through about half of the 35 pages of cabins on the site. Some are ordinary. Some are falling down. Some cabin designs sprang from architectural genius.
We’ve often thought about publishing a story that celebrates cottages from around the world. Now we don‘t have to. But as much as they look different from one another, they also share a vision of contradiction: small house designs in a big, lonely landscape, perhaps. And though some may be ordinary, none looks ordinary. These places manage to escape the ordinary: in their design, their location, or their sheer audacity.
I was fascinated. Check it out. If you don’t see anything deeper, you’ll at least like the pretty pictures.