Massachusetts Modern: 8 Striking Spaces in the Bay State

Though a stylistic break from the white-sided New England farmhouses that dot the forests and pastures of Western Massachusetts, the pool house’s simple, rustic exterior is a modern descendant of the local vernacular. With the area under snow for a quarter of the year, it also prevents Didier from having to join the local Polar Bear Club.

Landscape architect and artist Mikyoung Kim created a Cor-ten steel fence to enclose a three-acre site in Lincoln, Massachusetts. “The entire fence is made using just seven lengths of modular, precut Cor-Ten steel bars, with widths being anywhere from two to five bars thick," explains the designer. "Depending on the angle from which you see it, the fence can appear transparent or opaque.” Read the full article here.

When Jeff Taylor and Alex Miller designed the Pull House in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, they took “form follows function” one step further: Form describes function. Along the house’s facades, deep window openings pop through the silvery, white-cedar cladding in bright bursts. “The punches of color are points of personal expression,” says Taylor, cofounder of Taylor and Miller Architecture and Design. “They let the vitality of the residents leak out so passersby can experience the inside from the outside."

To maintain a sense of scale with regards to the lot, the Braver house was built up, down, and back. Through a series of split-levels, the previously one-story home is now three-and-a-half levels, with much of the new square footage reaching into the backyard. The asymmetrical angle of the roof’s pitch isn’t architectural whimsy. Instead, it simultaneously hides an array of solar panels from view while optimizing its angle to the sun.

This contemporary retreat built on a four-and-a-half-acre plot of land in Martha's Vineyard was designed by Harvard professor and architect, Toshiko Mori. Photos by: Iwan Baan

Early on, the house's simplicity had great appeal to Jan Sasseen, the current owner. From walls to rugs to furniture, "pretty much everything is white," she says. "When I was decorating, I picked the most basic things I could find. Nothing had details or frills."

Architecture firm NADAAA planned a striated addition to a brick neo-Georgian house in Boston with the owners’ primary goal in mind: to engage with the outdoors year-round. The walls of the rear kitchen and living space are virtually all glass, allowing sight lines to the existing gardens and new pool house through a series of framed vignettes onto the backyard landscape. The glass box is bookended by uniform “fins” that mark the edge of each picture window, as shown here. Photo by John Horner.