Black timber annexe forms quiet retreat in Austrian Alps
Lechner & Lechner Architects has added a charred-timber annexe to a house in the Alps.
Called Quiet Retreat, the standalone multipurpose room sits alongside the existing home in Salzkammergut, Austria, and pairs with it to form a loosely U-shaped group around a central patio, according to project details published on 17 September 2026 Dezeen.
The brief was tight. One extra room. Close to the house, but separate from it.
The new building sits on a slim concrete base, a low plinth that lifts the timber box just clear of the ground. A run of folding glass doors opens one full side of the room to a gravel patio. Pull the doors back and the interior becomes part of the courtyard. Close them and it holds heat and quiet.
Outside, the annexe is wrapped in blackened wood. The finish was produced with Shou Sugi Ban, a Japanese technique of charring the surface of timber to protect it from weather and insects, with no paint needed. The architects link the dark cladding to the traditional black Alpine barns still seen on farms across the mountains.
Step inside and the palette reverses. The walls and the gabled ceiling, a pitched roof with two slopes meeting at a ridge, are lined in pale oriented strand board panels, an engineered sheet made from small strips of wood pressed together. The boards leave the grain and flakes visible, so the small room reads light and textured rather than flat white.
The plan is what ties old and new together. The existing house holds one side of the gravel court. Quiet Retreat holds another. Left open in the middle, the patio works as a shared outdoor room, sheltered on two sides but open to sky and view.
For the household, that layout gives options. The annexe can work as a guest stay, a studio, or a retreat from the main house during the day. With the glass wall folded open, the gravel outside acts as an extra floor, doubling the usable space in summer.
What makes this stand out is the swap. Dark outside, light inside. A hard charred skin to face the weather, and soft pale boards where people sit.
