Once there was a small fisherman’s cabin, and a small addition, and a smaller addition……in a very remote and rocky location at the end of a gravel road just wide enough for a car. North to the lakeshore, everything is in light. This is the replacement for a modest time capsule, loved by the Owners, shy in its context, but difficult to share with others. Setbacks found the new project surprising close in both orientation and placement, to the intuitive choices made 70 years ago. Beneath a thin topping of soils, rock sloped up slowly along a building line from east to west. So, too would the footprint of the retreat. The east view showcased a basalt palisade, heart of a new volumetric panorama for family spaces. Towards west, a few broad steps up to a confluence of sleeping rooms and a tall southern reading space clad in hemlock provide a landing for a stairway to lofted sleeping rooms - a work of modern craftsmanship. Materially refined with clean and tactile planks where the beauty of grain compliments both the environs and the regional artworks and artifacts beautifully, a reserved and quiet character of the building form, Laurentian-derived granites and long, low roof slopes blend into the backcountry. Take nothing. Leave no trace. Live well.
