Rural Design

The steel roofing is from Hamilton in Southern Ontario. The doors were reclaimed from a local hotel. The windows are from a Mississauga company. The trim and cabinetry is milled from oak trees that they cut down to build the driveway. “It’s as local as it gets,” says Liz.

The oak countertops in the kitchen are the same as the flooring.

The new addition and old building were clad in the same red timber for a cohesive look.

The little red cabin is a nod to the classic summer cottage of Sweden.

The large primary bedroom awaits on the top floor, complete with a soothing en suite bath.

Original exposed beams and polished concrete floors span across the main living areas.

Though the house's design was inspired by old sheds and barns, its glass walls give the home a contemporary feel and fill the interior with light, even on cloudy days.

The overhanging roof creates covered outdoor space connected to the home's public areas.

"Our many ideas were floating around the mountain, and we needed someone to bring them down and turn them into reality,

Built on a shale ridge with a 35-foot drop-off, Scott and Julie Pelletier’s house in Maine comprises a succession of simple gables.

“We pulled apart one volume and staggered it along the buildable area of the property,” says architect Matthew Ahlberg of Portland firm Barrett Made. The home is clad in unfinished cedar, meant to weather over time.

The center of the Dojo pops up like a lantern and gives off light at night for the trail system.

An open-air boardwalk carries the family west from the gathering spaces to their bedroom cabin.

A flat stone dust path that is easily navigable on foot or by wheelchair leads from the kitchen to the Near Cabin. “We used boardwalks only for the most frequently traversed paths since they impact the site more than a simple walkway,” Shaw says.

The living room’s wood-burning fireplace has a concrete hearth that wraps the chimney and runs under the windows, acting as seating, a plant ledge, and creating a spot to store logs, all of which are harvested from the site.

Outside the dining area and kitchen, Cor-Ten steel columns support a deep roof overhang. “The building is open and accessible on multiple sides, recalling a pavilion where you might gather in a park,” Shaw says. “Rather than front doors defining entry or exit points, there’s porosity.”