Forest Retreat

PA, United States

Add To Collection

Other Projects by Materia Prima Studio

Add To Collection

Bayside

Forest Retreat

PA, United States

Firm

Materia Prima Studio

Type

Residential › Private House

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2023

SIZE

5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

Honor Award recipient, 2023 AIA Northeastern Pennsylvania

Situated in a forest adjacent to a sprawling family farm on a hill in Northeastern Pennsylvania, this long-dreamed-of home for a family of five will be the hub for a life spent as much outdoors as inside. The previously developed and reforested property features an abandoned, gently curving railroad bed, a meandering trout stream, two ponds, and a mix of deciduous and evergreen trees. The design takes direction from these physical assets to create an environment that maintains strong connections to the land, trees, sun, water, and views.

Beginning with the railroad bed, 150 years since its construction for timber and ice harvesting and 50 years since its dismantling, the house is situated on its south side at a point where the rail bed and natural slope of the land briefly meet at the same elevation. This place becomes important in two ways: as home base for arrival, outdoor gathering, and departure for daily life on the landscape, and as a baseline or datum for the visual and programmatic organization of the house.

Arranged in an ‘upside down’ fashion, priority access to light, views, and the space within an expressive roof shape are given over to the open, active daytime spaces while the quieter sleeping and storage areas are located downstairs. The imbalance of internal area that this creates with two thirds of the house on the lower level is used to drive the primary design concept. The planted roof of the larger lower level becomes an extension of the landscape upon which the timber upper building rests, giving it a pavilion-like feeling and presence, perched in the trees with views of nature, changing light, and weather conditions all around.

Arrival on foot from the farm side happens on the main porch under the timber roof with multiple doors into key spaces. Vehicular access arrives on the lower level via a gravel path from a town road to the south. From there one enters the two-story stair hall which provides the experience of delivering the visitor up to the heart of the timber structure where the planted roof appears to blend with the landscape leading to a sunlit view of the pastoral landscape through the trees.

A key visual goal was to suppress the scale of the home when viewed from the extended family’s shared recreational farmland. By aligning the planted roof’s elevation with the railroad bed, two thirds of the house is hidden from view and only the low-slung timber building is visible through the trees. The lower building’s form is rooted to the ground with the same bluestone found in farm walls throughout the region while the upper building is clad in a cedar pattern designed to resemble the layered feathers of the red-winged blackbirds found roosting and singing on the farm year-round. In fact, wildlife has so quickly accepted the new structure’s presence, a black bear and her cubs are regularly seen using the rail bed trail as a route for berry-picking.