One of Danny Lindstrom’s earliest memories of loving a building was when he was nine years old and saw the Alfred Hitchcock thriller North by Northwest for the first time. The massive limestone-and-wood walls and cantilevering steel beams of the movie’s focal house, supposedly on top of Mount Rushmore, excited him. “It was so modern and daring, yet fit into this mountainous context. I was and still am so disappointed that it doesn’t actually exist.”

Twenty years later, movies still play a part in the architectural designer’s work. “I love the idea of architecture feeling theatrical, where the story and experience of a building unfold as you move through it, with settings framed cinematically,” Lindstrom says. A sense of fun bordering on abandon finds a place in his designs, too.

It all takes shape in rented cabins he’s built with business partner and roommate Duff Davidson in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, where farmland gives way to woods of white pine two hours from their Minneapolis home. “The trees have a distinct Northwoods vibe,” Lindstrom says.

Off-Grid Inn, Unit 1, their first foray, quickly became the most wish-listed Airbnb in Wisconsin. Then came Unit 2, a 260-square-foot cabin that, soon after completion, starred in a tongue-in-cheek video tour that went viral on TikTok, where Off-Grid Inn has some 100,000 followers.

“A marketing agency twenty years ago would not say, ‘Tell us everything that’s bad about the house,’ but that’s what I did,” Lindstrom says. (Among those features: a “kind of pointless” spiraling deck, a queen-size bed that’s “not a king,” and windows that open wide to “more nature—super original.”) “It’s so much more valuable than what would’ve typically been normal—and it’s just being ourselves.”

“It always hurts my soul to see a beautiful forest and then two hundred feet of lawn with the house in the middle,” says Lindstrom.

That sense of irreverence, along with a love of Carhartt and Kanye West, comes to life throughout the cabin. “One of the best parts of the rental aspect is you’re not tied down to only the fully functional,” Davidson says, pointing to the bright yellow bath, small kitchen sink, and absence of closet space. “Obviously there’s function, but we’re providing an experience.” And because it’s a short-term experience, the two had the freedom to take risks. “A yellow bathroom might get old if you see it every day,” Lindstrom says. For guests, though, it’s part of the fun. So is a glow-in-the-dark handrail (also bright yellow) and a “conversation pit” living area.

But the woodsy environment is the real star of the show. That’s why Lindstrom chose an otherwise simple slate of natural materials: red cedar outside, white pine inside. Even the birch light fixtures, which he and Davidson made, blend in. The monochromatic scheme brings out the richness of the landscape, as does a curved wall ending at a massive window, which draws your eye outside. “The space almost feels like an open box,” he says. “It makes it seem like you’re closer to nature.”

For Lindstrom, the architectural approach connects in spirit to movies like Fargo and No Country for Old Men, made by fellow Minnesotans Joel and Ethan Coen. “They are serious but funny, artistic without being pretentious, and prove that even the most ordinary characters, locations, and situations can be worthy of a compelling story,” he says. “I think Off-Grid Inn very much resonates with that.”

And although they’re constantly asked about building custom units, the pair remain focused on rentals. Explains Davidson: “It feels like a way to make architecture accessible and for more people to experience places like this.”

Project Credits:

Architecture: Off-Grid Inn

Photography: Cameron Wittig / @cameronwittig

—

Head back to the July/August 2022 issue homepage