Piet Hein Eek’s Log Cabin Studio for Hans Liberg in Hilversum

In a wooded garden in Hilversum, in the Netherlands, stands what looks like a neat pile of firewood dusted with snow. Walk closer and a row of windows swings up from the log ends to reveal a bright blue room with a keyboard, a guitar and a desk. It is a garden studio designed by the Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek for his friend, the musician and artist Hans Liberg.

Log-clad studio by Piet Hein Eek resembling a woodpile in a snowy wood — The studio in its snowy garden. Photo: Thomas Mayer; design by Piet Hein Eek.

A studio disguised as a woodpile

From the outside the studio is all log ends: hundreds of sawn trunks of different diameters stacked into a solid block, with longer logs laid along the sides. With its shutters closed it reads as nothing more than a winter fuel store at the edge of the trees, and the photographs taken after a light snowfall make the disguise even more convincing.

The log studio seen from a distance among bare trees

Front of the studio with its windows closed, looking like stacked firewood

Studio with its row of windows propped open above the log ends

How the log studio is built

The logs are cladding, not structure. Underneath sits a frame of steel and plastic, and the wooden envelope works as insulation, keeping the interior warmer in cold weather. The whole cabin stands on wheels, so it can be hitched to a car and moved.

Along the sides runs a band of top-hinged windows made of steel and plastic. With the shutters closed, the openings disappear into the pile; propped open, the windows become small awnings, let in daylight and give full ventilation.

Close-up of a window set into the log-end facade

Desk with a keyboard and sheet music under the studio windows

Hans Liberg playing a keyboard inside the blue-painted studio

Corner of the log facade showing sawn ends and side logs

Inside Hans Liberg’s studio

Inside, the rustic exterior gives way to a clean, bright workspace painted in pale blue. A desk under the windows holds a keyboard and sheet music, a cushioned bench runs along one wall, and open shelves carry books, a hat and a guitar amplifier, with an electric guitar propped against the bench. Liberg uses it as a quiet place to work, compose and record, looking out on the garden through the open windows.

Studio at dusk with light glowing through the open windows

The studio standing in a snowy garden among tall trees

Studio shelves with books, a hat, an amplifier and an electric guitar

Hans Liberg leaning out of an open window in the log facade

Hans Liberg at the desk with the bench and shelves beside him

Who is Piet Hein Eek?

Piet Hein Eek is one of the best-known Dutch designers. He made his name in 1990, when he graduated from the design academy in Eindhoven with a cupboard built from scrap wood found in a lumber yard. That idea became his Scrap Wood series, furniture made from what others throw away, and he founded his own practice in 1993.

His large studio complex in Eindhoven combines workshops with a shop, a restaurant and a gallery. Garden outhouses were among his early architectural projects, and the Liberg studio shows the same instinct as his furniture: an ordinary, humble material arranged so you look at it twice.