Original design and visualization by Ian Alkajami · Image enhanced using generative AI

Original academic cabin design

The Slate

A small retreat with a generous view.

The Slate is a contemporary cabin on a lake, designed around simple geometry and a close connection to the view. I wanted it to feel compact and cozy, with a restrained, slightly sophisticated character.

Context: Academic design · NWTC
My role: Original design & documentation
Focus: Compact living · Glazing · Lakeside setting

01 · Form & setting

Keep the form
simple.

The design uses a clear geometric form and floor-to-ceiling windows to give the small interior a strong relationship with its setting. The glazing makes the lake part of the experience of the cabin while the compact scale preserves the feeling of a retreat.

I built this original visualization by hand in Photoshop, layer by layer and brushstroke by brushstroke. It establishes the composition and atmosphere behind the AI-enhanced interpretation shown above.

The Slate visualized in a wooded lakeside setting — Original Photoshop visualization · Hand-composited

02 · Drawings

Read the design
in plan and section.

The floor plan shows how the cabin’s spaces fit within a modest footprint. Selected elevations and a section provide another way to understand its proportions, openings, and overall form.

The visualization establishes the atmosphere; the academic drawing set records the design in more detail. Keeping both together makes the cabin legible as a spatial proposal as well as an image.