Swan Island Residence

Following a long, meandering gravel drive through birch groves, you arrive at a clearing for an intentional pause. Rows of richly colored crabapple trees obscure the house, presenting a softened screen below an open sky above. The full fragrance of malus flowers accompanies your descent along a narrow path through the trees and an opening in a low fieldstone wall.

Beyond the wall, the home appears as a modest pavilion, delicately set into a cultivated landscape of ground cover and manicured paths. The cadence of enlarged, eased frames and generous glazing invites you to peer through portions of free-flowing spaces inside. A pronounced eave and shaped scrims trace the perimeter and accentuate the horizontal, working jointly to shade and diffuse daylight throughout the seasons.

From the entrance foyer, you have a glimpse through the gallery of the shoreline and water beyond. Barrel-vaulted ceilings extend a subtle gesture of levity and elegance. As you proceed to other areas of the house, you are welcomed with expansive views of an ever-changing New England landscape. The migration of sunlight bathes both building and landscape, accentuating the actions of rippled waters and textures of tall grasses. The daily choreography is captured by shadows across reclaimed walnut flooring as light dances through each space towards a sunset over Great Bay.

From any vantage point, the home reveals itself in curated segments, allowing its 7,000 square foot volume to remain modest. Its single-level arrangement enables the multi-generational family it serves to move easily throughout, yet affords pockets of privacy. Four unique courts create outdoor rooms woven within four distinct wings, two social and two private. The bedroom wing and secondary suite open onto private lawns and share a garden court of native lilacs. Social areas spill into the landscape by way of a glass-covered porch, an outdoor dining trellis, and pool.

Quietly in the background, the broad, gently curving roof embraces a photovoltaic membrane system to generate power, and rainwater collects from all points to a cistern in the cellar. The bowed, simplified structure of cellular steel affords a light and efficient assembly, wide openings, and spacious volumes.

This is an architecture of balance.