The latest guest house by Vipp—fitted entirely with the company’s sleek designs—is the company’s ninth and a first for us: our inaugural design destination in Latvia, a new pin on our Design Travel map.
Have a look at this circa-1876 log house by the Salaca River, transformed and available for stays:
Above: The log cabin is a former fisherman’s house, once situated between the towns of Riga and Wolmar and used as a stop-off between the two. When Arturs Martinsons, founder of Latvian design studio Xcelsior, heard it was about to be dismantled, he approached Vipp with the idea of saving it, turning it into a family escape on his wild parcel of land in Salaca National Park. Then, reports Vipp, “each log was meticulously numbered and safely transported to its new home, where the log house was rebuilt on a foundation of 180 stones.”Above: Into the guest house in its new location, surrounded by meadows, woodlands, and the rushing Salaca River.Above: The design vision for the cabin was clear: preserve its rustic spirit while bringing in 21st-century design. Or, as Vipp put it, “transform a holiday residence in decay to a contemporary cottage where Scandinavian minimalism meets log house architecture.”Above: The team kept the original bones of the house intact but dramatically opened up the tight 1,180-square-foot space, removing interior walls so that the downstairs is all one room—as well as half of the first floor ceiling and some exterior apertures to open the cabin as much as possible to the outdoors. One corner is fitted with Vipp’s V1 kitchen in striking black.Above: Mirrors around the fireplace serve to reflect light and the nearby trees—another trick to bring nature in, according to Vipp.
