How They Pulled It Off: A Sculptural Barn Captures Shifting Light and Views of a Surrounding Meadow
Partner Story
Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.
When interior designer Michael Halpern set eyes on the site that would become his ground-up home, he instantly saw the potential in the Connecticut meadow. "It was this big, beautiful field set in a hollow," he recalls. "Every view was fantastic and I loved that I wouldn’t have to clear any trees." As he began designing a floor plan for his dream home, Michael chanced across the family home of architect Nate Dalesio in South Salem, New York, on Dwell and he sensed he had found a potential collaborator.
Following a meeting at Dalesio’s home, they quickly discovered a shared design language—and together they have crafted what is now known as The Meadows and Nate’s first commission for his own firm, Multitude Studio. The result is a tranquil, architecturally ambitious home with an artful arrangement of windows that celebrates the ever-changing landscape.
Two barn structures sit perpendicular to one another with a glass entry foyer connecting them.
Set among the gentle hills of Litchfield County, Connecticut, the two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom home sits in an area known for its colonial houses, agricultural barns, and respect for the bucolic landscape. Michael, who had long admired the simple, rectilinear forms of early American architecture, didn’t want to replicate the past—but did want to reference it. "The barn was the clear vernacular," he says. "But I wanted it to be very clean and simple with a lot of timber. I knew Nate shared that same sensibility."
Dalesio’s response to Michael’s brief was a home composed of two barn-like volumes placed perpendicular to one another, joined by a glass entry foyer. "We abstracted the traditional forms but didn’t replicate them," says the architect. "It helps the home fit in with its setting but you can tell it’s not exactly the same as everything around it."
The Meadows features a cantilevered balcony that overlooks the meadow and lap pool. Marvin Ultimate Sliding doors and matching white oak frames extend the home’s warm interior palette and frame views of the surrounding landscape.
The layout is deliberately choreographed: the primary suite and private spaces are tucked into one volume, while the other opens into a soaring, wood-clad great room with views across the landscape. Carefully framed window assemblies—ranging from oversized picture windows to slender awnings and custom polygonal shapes—create a rhythm of light and shadow that shifts with the seasons. "This house has been an exercise in proportions," explains Dalesio.
The living space is inspired by traditional barn interiors with soaring ceilings. The interior is clad almost entirely in white oak, including the floors, ceiling panels, and the trim around the windows and doors. "I consulted a German friend of mine and said, ‘I'm thinking of Baltic, birch, and oak,’" says homeowner and designer Michael Halpern. "And he said, ‘Oh, the German expression is ‘aus einem Guss.’ Or ‘in one pour.’ And I thought that sounds right. So it became all oak."
Inside, a palette of white oak and soft greys amplifies the calm. The great room features oak-clad ceilings and columns, a nod to Michael’s love of Scandinavian design. The oak window and door frames—finished on site to match the floors and ceiling—were essential to this vision. "The consistency makes the space feel cohesive and tranquil," says Michael.
The floor-to-ceiling Marvin Ultimate Sliding doors in the living and dining area lead to the cantilevered deck and frame uninterrupted views of the surrounding meadow and hills while flooding the space with natural light.
The home features floor-to-ceiling windows and doors from the Marvin Ultimate collection as well as a combination of smaller casements and awnings. "It breaks up those large openings and gives them more of a human scale when you’re opening and closing the windows," explains architect Nate Dalesio. The vintage bar stools seen here are by Alvar Aalto.
The view from the primary suite offers a distinctly different perspective over the treetops compared to the ground floor spaces. The lower ceilings in the more private wing of the home are another contrast with the grand scale of the living areas, creating a cozier, more secluded feeling.
"I wanted to have an office that was connected to my bedroom," says Michael of the expansive primary suite. "It was important to me to be able to have guests, yet I could close off my own personal space when people were here."
The primary suite also features its own covered outdoor space. "The colors are constantly changing and the meadow changes every year," says Michael. "There are things that happen in the meadow that did not happen the year before. And that, I find just fascinating."
The staircase provides a transition between the airy upper level and the cooler, more intimate spaces below, including a guest room and work space. At the heart of the stairwell, a custom triangular assembly of Marvin windows follows the roofline to create a sculptural wall of glass. "There’s a theme throughout the house of taking things that are unexpected and turning them into something that's unique, but still familiar," says Halpern.
It was essential that the stairwell have a large glazed area to get light into the lower areas—which proved challenging due to the unusual shape that follows the roofline. "With Marvin Ultimate windows, we were able to break that up into four custom windows that assemble together into one enormous glazed wall," says architect Nate Dalesio. "We were able to subdivide it exactly how we wanted, which was perfect."
The home is set into the sloped site, meaning there are windows only on one side of the lower floor. The large windows in the stairway, however, flood the space with natural light. "That's an unusual experience for being below ground," says Dalesio. "Having that much light spill into that space is particularly special."
The ground floor bedroom is cooler and more shaded, with deep overhangs and a covered walkway that is cut out of the volume. "I have frequent house guests and they never want to leave as it’s just so restful," says Michael.
Other design decisions followed a similar logic: a cantilevered deck inspired by Marcel Breuer’s home in New Canaan; a stone garden beneath, drawing from the Noguchi Museum in New York City; gabion retaining walls that reference local stonework; and an OSB-clad console designed by Michael that elevates humble materials into bespoke furniture.
The home is clad in a yellow Alaskan cedar timber, which will silver as it patinas to create a soft palette of greys with the galvanized roof and gutters. "I wanted the house to be different levels and textures of gray," says Michael.
Nearly two years after moving in, the home has matured beautifully. The exterior Alaskan cedar cladding has silvered in some areas, and remains tawny in others, echoing the shifting colors of the meadow with each season. "My mother was an interior designer and I grew up with the idea that you can imagine space to be whatever you want," says Michael. "It’s a real gift to be able to visualize something from nothing. I found an empty hollow and put a house on it. Now, what was once a corn field is a beautiful home."
How they pulled it off: A serene barn blending New England roots with Nordic simplicity
Set to one side of the property, the lap pool is tucked into the landscape and positioned to take in the views. "There’s nothing more luxurious than a lap pool when you’re a swimmer, but I didn’t want to be looking at a sad pool in winter," says Michael. "If I were living in California or someplace like that, it would be right in front of me all the time. But here, it's off to the side. So it's kind of its own world."
- Work with the landscape: The sloping meadow and wetland setbacks naturally determined the siting of the house. "There was really only one place it could go," says Nate. "But it also happened to offer the best views." Building into the slope allowed for a two-level design that feels grounded yet expansive.
The Meadows reinterprets the barn vernacular of the Connecticut countryside with two gabled volumes connected by a glass-walled entry foyer, offering a contemporary twist on a familiar rural form.
- Abstract the vernacular: Rather than replicate a barn, the team abstracted its essential qualities—gabled rooflines, vertical cladding, and a simple form—to create a contemporary silhouette. "You recognize it immediately, but it’s clearly not a traditional barn," says Dalesio.
Custom Marvin Ultimate windows are seamlessly integrated into the home’s architecture above a built-in window seat designed by Michael as an homage to Donald Judd and a contemplative spot for morning coffee.
- Make the windows part of the architecture: Michael was immediately struck by the placement of windows when he visited Dalesio’s home during the planning stages—and this approach was something he wanted to echo in his own home. The duo collaborated closely with Marvin to design a glazing strategy that includes custom formats—such as the angular window above the stair—and white oak frames.
"The white oak frames connect the outside and the interior and frame the natural world," says Michael. "It allows nature—which is really the star—to shine."
- Match the materials, inside and out: To create continuity, the interior window frames were finished in white oak—just like the floors, ceilings, and millwork. All the timberwork was sealed at the same time to ensure the same matte finish throughout, a detail that makes the entire home feel calm.
The robust material palette ensures longevity, while the clever division of space between the two forms—one for public and one for private spaces—fosters both intimacy and connection.
Design for living: The Meadows is designed as a peaceful retreat that also invites and celebrates daily life, whether used as a solo retreat or for entertaining. It was essential that the material palette didn’t feel too precious, and the floor plan offered a division between public and private spaces. "Michael wanted it to be a serene, almost monastic kind of space, but not sacred," explains Dalesio.
Let the views unfold: Window placement was driven by how each space would be used throughout the day. Northern light fills the primary suite, study and fitness room, for example, while the kitchen is bathed in morning sun. "The windows absolutely had to correspond to the way the light changes during the day," says Michael. "Making decisions like that is one of the most satisfying parts of designing a home."
The fitness room faces north by design, allowing Michael to work out in soft, indirect light throughout the day without ever needing to close a shade.
Choose windows that perform: "I had lived in a colonial house before and froze in winter," says Michael. "Now I sit at a full-height window in January and feel warm." The Marvin Ultimate collection was key in achieving this performance—plus the ability to customize shapes, sizes, and finishes to suit the architectural vision.
Project Credits:
Architect: Multitude Studio
Designer: Halpern Design
Landscape Architect: Peter Eckert
Builder: Stephen Pelletier, S J P & Sons Construction
Windows and Doors: Marvin
Photography: Yoni Goldberg for Dwell Creative Services
Video: 22 Waves for Dwell Creative Services
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