Reds shingles create "sense of personality and wonder" at Cucu cabin by Studio Bucky
New York practice Studio Bucky has nestled an off-grid cabin among trees in rural Westmeath, Ireland, shrouding its tapered exterior in red-stained shingles.
Named Cucu, Studio Bucky designed the compact dwelling for Samsú, a cabin rental brand that aims to provide unique retreats in the Irish countryside.
Red-stained shingles cloak the cabin's slanted walls, giving it a distinctive appearance intended to recall agricultural buildings and metal roofs found in the surrounding countryside.
"The goal was to create a small structure with a clear sense of personality and wonder," Studio Bucky founder Alexander Buckeridge told Dezeen.
"The client wanted something that stood apart from the wave of standardised cabin hospitality, so we focused on a design that responds to its landscape rather than simply sitting within it," he continued.
"The building is designed to slow you down, catch your eye from a distance, and become more introspective once inside."
Inside, the cabin's square floor plan comprises a seating nook, a kitchen, a log-burning stove and a toilet and shower room closed off behind a sliding door.
A ladder leads to a sleeping area on a mezzanine level above, which features a circular window overlooking the surrounding nature.
Pops of red in the window frames and tiling add colour to Cucu's plywood-lined interior, and a custom roll-top copper bath sits next to the cabin on the outdoor deck.
Buckeridge drew upon traditional tower houses in Ireland when designing the compact, vertical layout.
"Tower houses are a distinct Irish building type, scattered across rural landscapes," said Buckeridge. "We were interested in their verticality and the sense of inhabiting height."
"In Cucu, that idea becomes more intimate, almost like sleeping in the sky," he continued. "It's not a literal reference, but a subtle echo of that tradition, translated into a contemporary form with different materials, while remaining grounded in place."
Cucu functions fully off-grid, powered by solar energy. It also incorporates a compost eco-toilet.
Buckeridge, who hails from Ireland, founded Studio Bucky in 2024. The studio works across architecture, interiors and furniture sectors and has previously designed a furniture collection informed by Irish portal tombs.
Other cabins recently featured on Dezeen include a pale green-painted timber building in the Netherlands and a maroon structure built to replace a prefab home in Spain.
The photography is by Jasmine Hughes.
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