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North American cottages often evoke log cabins in forests, but they’re usually wood-clad suburban homes on cleared land. These homes falsely suggest environmental respect. The m.o.r.e. CLT Cabin, however, genuinely respects its forest site by separating itself from the land. Its innovative structure and materials reduce its carbon footprint and leave the site untouched. It creatively interprets zoning laws, uses a steel mast foundation to minimize impact, utilizes low-waste CLT, runs on off-grid power, and supports endangered bats.
With the m.o.r.e. CLT Cabin we were interested in pursuing innovation and sustainability in the following ways.
Interpreting the Law with Finesse
Zoning rules required a 30-metre setback from the lake. A cliff face at that 30-metre mark was incorporated into the design; conventional construction approaches would have meant blasting and bulldozing the hillside into a flat area. There would also have been additional harm from the maneuvering of large construction machinery and extensive materials storage.
To minimize harm to the hillside and forest, a zoning variance was obtained to allow the front of m.o.r.e. Cabin to hover above, rather than sit on, the 30-metre mark.
The Mast
The technical solution to the environmental issue involved a single concrete footing and a steel “mast” placed within the required setback.
Avoiding a conventional large foundation preserved the watershed and prevented erosion, as did elevating the construction zone. The use of carbon-intensive concrete was also significantly reduced for a lower carbon footprint.
m.o.r.e. Than One Way to Skin a Home
m.o.r.e. CLT Cabin is built with sustainably sourced cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels and glulam beams.
The CLT and its steel fasteners were engineered and sized to be of minimal size and weight. This allowed the components to be brought in on one load, on a small-bed truck, where they were then hoisted into place from a single station point, avoiding damage to the landscape by conventional construction machinery and sequencing. The precision of the CLT milling process also minimized construction waste and materials storage areas, because only what was needed was brought to the site, where it was rapidly assembled.
Cabin-as-Beam
m.o.r.e. Cabin’s environmental considerations yielded structural innovation. Our challenge became to develop a structural strategy using cantilevered CLT panels as a response to the zoning variance that we obtained. Whereas CLT is typically deployed in vertical/compressive applications, here, the CLT is used innovatively to enable long/tension spans.
Conventional 5-ply CLT is rigid but too heavy to support itself over longer spans. The solution used thinner 3-ply CLT, with structural capacity ensured through “folding”. Just like even delicate paper gains strength when folded, the depths of the V-shaped CLT floor and roof assemblies of the cabin were calibrated to enable the desired span and cantilever.
* “m.o.r.e.” stands for the clients’ grandmothers’ names; all of whom were immigrants and always did more with less — and gracefully so.
