The new home was required to serve the needs of its owners, an elderly couple, and their two unmarried adult daughters. As a result, the plan has three private suites and a cluster of shared spaces facing the lake. The lower ‘forest’ level, located at grade, was the natural location for the couple’s suite. It consists of a bedroom, family room, and a small bar and opens onto a screened porch and terrace that faces the lake. The upper ‘dune’ level is divided into three zones: a central shared space with a library, kitchen, dining room and a soaring living room flanked by two private suites, each with a master bedroom, guest bedroom, bath, screened porch and deck.
Most of the livable area of the original home had been at the upper ‘dune’ level and had surrounded a central outdoor courtyard. As a result, much of the lower level was unexcavated crawlspace, including the area beneath the courtyard. The new design captured this space by excavating the crawlspaces, increasing the area of the lower level within the original foundation walls.
The interior spaces are designed using a palette of natural materials that are intended to reinterpret the traditional rustic aesthetic of a weekend home. The shared living space is paneled in ash-veneered MDF, offering an attractive contrast to the dark bamboo floors used throughout. The kitchen and bar cabinetry are custom designed in natural finished MDF and offer a variety of open and closed storage options. In an expression of simplicity, much of the storage is open and where doors are provided, finger holes are used in place of hardware pulls; even the drawers are simple boxes, without drawer slides.