On a coastal site with dense woods, our client would often walk from his family’s camp through the spruce and birch to a secluded pebble beach, over time wearing a path under the canopy of trees. Decades later, with young children of his own, he approached us to design a home for his family along the same well-worn path he traversed as a child summer after summer.

Our site-specific design perches the home on steel columns that lightly touch the moss- and rock-filled forest floor. This treehouse-like posture allows for better views of a protected cove on one side and open ocean with a distant island lighthouse on the other. The use of natural materials and ample glass gives it a transparent nature, camouflaging it within the trees and allowing it to unfold gradually rather than reveal itself all at once. The design preserves the pattern of use the family had established from walking between properties over many years and brings the path inside so that the house becomes an extension of it.