Board + Batten, located in historic Plymouth Notch, Vermont, is a private guest house sited at the edge of a mature forest overlooking a private meadow. Accessed by a narrow footpath, the secluded guest house is organized in a T-shaped symmetrical plan with bedrooms defining the edge of the forest and the living spaces projecting into the meadow. The residence is inspired by board and batten siding, ubiquitous in the region as a durable and functional cladding. Board + Batten is clad in a playful composition of painted board, mirror polish stainless steel panels and windows within the regimented spacing of the board and batten layout. Ranging from opaque to translucent to reflective, the siding creates a rich and textured surface that meaningfully integrates the house into the landscape. A standing seam black metal roof, hipped in all directions, is finished with a knife-edged cedar soffit and aligned to the cedar deck below. The interior spaces are defined by a minimalist palette of finished concrete floors, painted walls, western red cedar details, and custom beds and cabinetry to compliment the mid-century furnishings.
Renovation of this 22’ x 64’ long farmhouse involved saving the skeleton—a 19th century timber-framed barn—which revealed two smaller stick-framed structures. The original structure was maintained and exposed by strategic demolition followed by adding a highly insulated 12” SIP shell outside the original timber + log structure, echoing the BarnHouse vernacular of an iconic shell holding individual spaces, some lofted.
The Trefoil House inherited a pre-existing three-sided hearth and partial foundation, located on a rural sloped site in Stowe, Vermont. The house was reimagined using the hearth as a structural and narrative generator: The house is built out from its triangular core as three squares joined at the corners. The three-sided hearth is used as a central program driver, producing a continuous trefoil circulation loop around the perimeter of each square and providing a central point of orientation while allowing for the house to spread into the landscape. Public spaces are enclosed in glass, while private spaces are shielded with sculpted louvers to differentiate the rotationally symmetric plan. A 150 foot long curtainwall wraps continuously around six sides of the house. The trefoil circulation allows for an unbroken perceptual experience of the pristine site, but critically also allows for an entirely wheelchair accessible upper level in order to accommodate the client’s elderly parents and an aging-in-place philosophy.
Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont is one of North America’s finest, most diverse and unconventional museums of art, design and Americana. Over 150,000 works are exhibited in a remarkable setting of 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the Museum grounds.
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