Larch Retreat Floats on 500-Million-Year-Old Boulders

The Findling is a 91-square-metre cabin located in the forested hills of Austerlitz, New York, designed by the Brooklyn studio Of Possible. The structure rests on four 500-million-year-old glacial erratic boulders, which serve as the primary supports for the timber frame. The building was commissioned by two Manhattan psychoanalysts who sought a retreat to repair their relationship with their property after a previous disconnected experience with a prior structure.

A Name Rooted in Geology

The name “Findling” is derived from the German word for both “orphan” and “glacial erratic.” Clients adopted the term after a visiting philosopher identified the boulders beneath the site as glacial erratics. This definition aligns with the architectural intent; the house acts as a resting place for the stones rather than a structure that displaces them. Vincent Appel, the lead architect, integrated this concept literally, allowing the massive stones to support the timber construction.

Timber, Stone, and Steel

The design relies on three primary materials: larch, stone, and stainless steel. The dwelling is constructed entirely from timber harvested nearby. Windows are mulled directly into solid larch jambs without the use of separate frames. The walls pivot open for ventilation without any mechanical hardware. The stainless steel stair was engineered through finite-element analysis to achieve its thinnest possible profile. The studio describes this stair as a “third space,” featuring perforated treads and a ribbon-like handrail that connects the forest path to the raised platform.

Inside, the layout lacks a conventional entry sequence, placing visitors directly into the central plan. The symmetrical arrangement offers spatial surprise, with two compact bedrooms featuring deep-set windows and timber shutters that resemble a treehouse bunk. The central living space opens to floor-to-ceiling glass, drawing inspiration from the rhythm of mountaineering lodges. The kitchen island is a single block of unpolished Vermont Verde serpentine, sourced from a quarry that also provided stone for Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building. Door and shutter hardware by Ize reinterprets Le Corbusier’s La Tourette monastery handles. Half the structure sits on a stone wall built between 1770 and 1830, a remnant of the land’s agricultural history.

While the materials and details reflect a rigorous attention to construction, the building does not attempt to dominate its surroundings. Instead, it is designed to belong to the setting again. The project involved collaboration with several specialists, including Nellie Ostow and Widening Circles for landscaping, Aschettino Associates LLC for structural engineering, Gregory Stone for stonework, and Rory Gardiner for photography.