A series of family cabins hidden in the forest and overlooking Washington's Hood Canal, the Hood Cliff Retreat is located on a 1.13-acre site atop a bluff on a wooded site on the western shore of Hood Canal in the Pacific Northwest. “As avid bird watchers and naturalists, the clients wanted an indoor outdoor family retreat that would immerse them in the stillness of the forest and capture the delicate Washington sunlight and views toward Hood Canal and the Olympic Mountains to the west,” says architect Matt Wittman.

Built on the site in 1962, the original dark and opaque cedar cabin left the owners feeling cut off from nature, and they asked for a indoor outdoor retreat that would allow them to be closer to the land and also house an expanded program of three additional bedrooms and sleeping quarters for their extended family. The project has three elements: 1) The repurposed 20’x20’ footprint of the original cabin, 2) the cabin addition, and 3) a new bunkhouse and bathroom to the north. 

The clients wanted a retreat where they could watch birds and take in the nature of the Hood Canal. While they loved modern architecture, they did not want a building that was overly expressive of itself. They asked for a set of simple structures that would allow them to be close to the land. This resonated with Wittman, who had an appreciation for the simple vernacular structures of his rural childhood on a ranch in northern Idaho, and actively designs buildings allowing people to “experience the beauty of nature through architecture.”

The architecture defers to the landscape, inspired by nature and in particular the native killdeer bird. “Unlike most birds, the killdeer doesn’t bring outside vegetation to build its nest—it pulls away the existing brush, burrowing into the existing forest, and nesting on the ground,” says Wittman. Hood Cliff Retreat seeks a similar relationship with the ground that feels both connected to and protected from the elements of nature.