The project is a Guest House on a waterfront peninsula for an existing 1860s wood framed farmhouse that we helped a client renovate in the mid 1990s. The existing house has very limited space and is difficult to expand since the footprint is close the water’s edge so a guest house was the solution found to create more space for extended family on holiday gatherings and summer vacations. The guest house is designed as a one level structure with a phased construction so that the parents can shift to the guest house in their later years as they leave the farmhouse to the adult children to manage.
The Guest House program is broken down into two main bars to allow for construction phasing with the first phase having two bedrooms and a large living space to help immediately relieve the pressure on the small farmhouse with large family events. The second phase of work that will follow in a few years provides a kitchen, a dining room, and a third bedroom in a new bar volume. The two main volumes have different orientations for long views of the river to the east and west since the site is a peninsula with water views in multiple directions. The roof form and the folds help to reduce the building height and maximize the volumes at the ends to frame the water views. The gray standing seam metal of the roof replicates the material of the existing and adjacent farmhouse and other historic waterfront houses in the local region.