Cool teachers have come a long way. My token rad teacher back in my day would let us watch Troy in Latin class, or show up to actually run the Memorial Day 5K.
But today’s crop boasts Jacob Witzling, a second-grade teacher who builds hypnagogic woodland cabins that bring to mind Ewok treehouses and hobbit-holes. He’s currently on a cross-country tour with his partner Sara Underwood in a “truck cabin” that kinda looks like someone mashed together a vintage Ford and the Keebler elves’ cookie factory.
witzling (5 images)
Witzling’s creations spring from a design-heavy (his dad was an architect) and fantasy-heavier youth. He began by building cabins on friends’ land, sourcing the materials himself in exchange for years of access to the property. He’s built five since that first cabin, and the man has a way with roofs. There’s a shed with a 22-footer, a cabin that sits under chicken wire and harvested moss, and perhaps most impressively, a hut with an octagonal pyramid for a lid.
Each of these cabins makes use of salvaged materials. They don’t have running water, or a toilet, or a wifi password. Ironically, though (as Witzling points out himself), it’s today’s proliferation of social media that’s brought the cabins attention, and should bring a great deal of attention to Witzling and Underwood’s Pacific Northwest-planned “CABINLAND,” a nature-bound property with six unique new Witzling-designed cabins.
Sounds like a pretty sweet field trip.
h/t Dwell
Images: Sara Underwood
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