Maisons

Building the addition upward instead of outward allowed for more space and better views without excavating across the hilltop.

The steel-framed doors fully open to the courtyard, maximizing indoor/outdoor living space on the small lot.

Solar panels provide power for the two cabins.

“This was the first Annex house we have ever done,” LeBlanc says. “We’ve done a lot of work with existing buildings, and it’s actually a big part of our practice—but with this home there were many significant details worth protecting and restoring.”

The bedroom wing steps out to the pool. Cor-Ten steel encases the doors and windows, and forms the custom cantilevered canopies.

“The master bedroom is tucked into the trees, which kind of anchors the whole composition and is also appropriate because it’s more private,” says Haesloop. It also provides the couple with a shower that looks out into the woods.

Two hours north of New York City, an unusual barn emerges from a hill just off a country road. Its black siding and bright-red window frames hint at the imaginative playground inside. This space, with its rope-railed catwalk and indoor tent, is just one element of the multifaceted getaway architecture and design firm BarlisWedlick Architects designed for fund manager Ian Hague.

The exterior combines recycled brick, radial sawn timber, and galvanized roof sheeting. "Materials were selected to meet the clients’ brief that the house fit within the cognitive idea of an old shed," explain the architects.

From the garden, an illuminated view into the bi-level extension.

The architects worked with the natural, six-foot slope of the site and built the Granny Pad into the hill to gain the needed interior height. The volume on the right is the original garage footprint, which now houses a kitchen and sitting room. The added volume on the left hosts the bedroom, as well as a bathroom beneath the loft space.

The main entrance to the home is located opposite the door of the outbuilding.

Soft gray concrete, a polycarbonate screen, and metal roof bedeck the simple front facade of House A. Not immediately apparent? An underground water collection tank and solar panels. "We used a really high recycled content mix for our tilt-up concrete walls, which have 65-percent slag [a byproduct of steel production] instead of high-carbon emitting Portland cement," say the architects.

Capping off the second floor is a 14-foot-tall glazed window wall, a dramatic scale change from the original Victorian interior.

The entry is marked by a thin, cantilevered canopy hovering over the front porch.

The house sits within a field of trees.

Made on-site, the dining table is a custom design by Atelier RZLBD and is paired with Eames chairs.