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Rendering of Doah Cabin's cedar volume seen through the tree line at dusk.

Doah Cabin

Madison County, Virginia2025–present

Doah Cabin

Cedar / Glass Cabin

Location
Madison County, Virginia
Year
2025–present
Program
Hospitality cabin
Area
533 sf
Status
Under construction
Design Architect
Leopold Banchini Architects
Local Architect
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Doah is the first structure built within a twenty-five-acre hospitality landscape — a scattered constellation of cabins, a creekside onsen, and the infrastructure to support them, sited across a previously undeveloped property before any one building took its final form. The cabin establishes the language the rest of the property will follow: four rooms on a 7′ × 7′ regulating grid, terraced down the slope so each holds its own relationship to grade, and lifted on a field of point foundations. A curved slate roof gathers the rooms beneath a single continuous plane. Clear-stained cedar, granite, slate, and glass form a restrained material palette, allowing the structure and landscape to remain primary. Structure is exposed throughout, its connections concealed — the frame reads as continuous timber, holding the building aloft above the forest floor.

Rendering of Doah Cabin's roof overhang and glazed corner, seen from below among the trees.
01Rendering — the roof's overhang and glazed corner, seen from below
Topographic site plan showing Doah Cabin's footprint within the ridge, alongside neighboring structures on the property.
02Site plan — Cabin ‘A’ sited alongside Cabin ‘J’ and the onsen structures
Floor plan of Doah Cabin on its 7-foot module grid, showing the four terraced rooms around a central court.
03Floor plan — the module grid and four terraced rooms
Longitudinal section through Doah Cabin, showing the curved roof, terraced floor plates, and point foundations.
04Section — the curved roof and terraced floors above the forest floor
A raised sleeping platform beside full-height glazing, snow-covered forest beyond.
05Rendering — the sleeping platform, snow beyond the glass
Structural axonometric of Doah Cabin's timber frame, roof structure, and point foundations.
06Structural axonometric — timber frame and point foundations
Galvanized steel post-base hardware, stacked and ready to receive the timber frame's posts.
07Construction — galvanized post bases, set to receive the frame
A granite boulder held in an excavator bucket, set aside as foundation pier stone.
08Construction — locally quarried Virginia Mist granite, set as a foundation pier
A sunken stone bathing court open to the forest floor, autumn leaves beyond.
09Rendering — the soaking tub, open to the forest floor, autumn
Location
Madison County, Virginia
Year
2025–present
Program
Hospitality cabin
Area
533 sf
Status
Under construction

arch-well role

Local architectural services — permitting and code compliance, technical development, structural and tectonic resolution, and construction detailing — together with drone survey and photogrammetric processing of fifty-plus acres of mountainside, infrastructure coordination, siting informed by the resulting topographic model, and construction-phase involvement across the property.

project team

Design Architect
Leopold Banchini Architects
Local Architect
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Landscape Architect
Terremoto Landscape Architecture
Structural Engineer
EVOLV Engineering
Construction
Mark M. St. Onge, Inc.
Renderings
Analog1.eu
Photography
Ross Gerhold Productions

selected work