House in House is a 1,300-square-foot single-family residence sited in a forest clearing along Lake Walker in Washington state. The house points to its context by hybridizing two images: an existing log cabin and the surrounding landscape.

House in House reconstructs the size and shape of the log cabin within an outer shell. It produces two similar houses for the price of one: an inner house and an exterior envelope. While nearly identical in shape and proportion, the two houses possess distinguishing qualities. The outer envelope has no program but deploys typical elements—fenestration, siding, roofing—to look like a house; the inner house resembles a sculpture but contains all the functional spaces of a traditional home.

An image wrapper mimicking the surrounding forest stretches tautly over the exterior envelope. Based on photographs taken from multiple perspectives, the pattern on the wrapper creates a camouflage that merges the house with its context.