Ithaca’s summer weather is never predictable. I remember it was a sunny day in August and everyone was sitting in the shade of trees, enjoying the last few minutes of lunch break. Suddenly, the sky turned gloomy and storm clouds gathered on the horizon. A peaceful “picnic in nature” turned into a fight against time. We quickly collected all power tools and stored them under the scaffolding. The blue tarps, used as “picnic blankets” just a few minutes ago, were converted into covers for the unfinished cabin and wood panels. The second we packed up everything, rain started to pour. We hid under a cabin leg and watched the stream of rainwater trickling down the curves of the layered concrete.

The half-finished structure served as an improvised shelter, protecting me from the wild but at the same time bringing me closer to nature. It was that moment in the rain that I reflected on Marc-Antoine Laugier’s Primitive Hut, keenly aware of the meaning of “dwelling in nature, with nature, and by nature.”

— Gloria Yan [Wood Team Member, B.Arch ‘20 at Cornell AAP]