Pax Architects

Getaway and studio plan.

The studio’s dramatic ceiling is nearly 14-feet high. Thomas says that the yoga deck sits in the landscape “like a wooden lake.”

The rustic lamp on the floor between the dining and living areas is meant for warming chickens. “Like the house, it’s not afraid to be what it is,” Thomas says.

A bed in the studio provides a place for guests to sleep. The plywood floor is painted white.

The board-formed concrete retaining wall holds firewood and is also a bench. Beyond, the garden lounge backs up against the studio and a retaining wall. “It’s a study in how little you can do to define a space,” Thomas says.

The wood planks run vertically on the walls to echo the direction that trees grow, while the board-formed concrete fireplace wall runs horizontally because that is how one pours the concrete. “It’s another play of contrasts,” Thomas points out. He bought the net from a local fisherman.

Bookshelves, cupboards, log storage, and daybeds are carved into the walls. “These elements connect the exterior walls to the interior spaces,” the architect says.

The ceiling drops down significantly over the built-in bench in the living area to create a cozy nook. “Like the kitchen, it’s a space within a space,” Thomas says. The wooden boards are flush with the window frame, allowing the sun to wash down the wall.

Thomas likens the humble, black wood structures (there are two, but he hopes to add a third) to the forts or treehouses one builds as a kid. “Having a cluster of little houses brings down the scale,” he notes. “They are suitable for one or two; not overwhelming, but intimate.”

A local welder crafted the house number which is mounted off the wall to cast a shadow. “It also looks like ‘god’ which means ‘good’ in Danish, so it’s also ‘the good house,’” Thomas says.

The home sits at the end of a quiet, gravel road just 325-yards from the ocean. A board-formed concrete wall along the entry path hints at what is indoors.

“The structures create spaces that bridge the outside and inside, so it’s one continuous space,” Thomas says. Terraces act as a path that border the getaway and connect it to the garden lounge and studio. He added the round deck when his architecture partner told him he felt like the scheme needed a circle.

Board-formed concrete defines the core of the house, where the bedroom and bath are located. “It is a house within a house, like Russian babushka dolls,” Thomas says. A niche in the concrete wall holds the architect’s stash of spirits and wine. The tableau served as his Skype backdrop during the pandemic.

The painted black wood facades vary. Some feature wide slats on a fixed board, others feature thin ones.

which sits at the end of a quiet, gravel road just 325 yards from the ocean,