"This house brings us so much joy. I can be making dinner, my daughters can be drawing at the table, my son can be baking cookies, my friends and I can have a glass of wine uninterrupted. And we can all be together. It makes me so happy.” – Owner

The driving force behind this house was the connection to nature. This includes an abundance of solar exposure, close proximity to the water, having space around the house to build gardens, and a tree house for the kids to play. The house sits naturally on the land among the trees and existing typography. In addition to the primary family living space is a guest suite, an art studio, a home office, and spaces for exercise. The family spends the majority of their time together in the living space next to the kitchen, so they invested in large windows, a bold fireplace, and large sliding glass doors to combine the inside living space with the outside terrace. 

The site had a narrow band of area that could be impacted due to land use constraints, adjacency to public right of way, and access. With this in mind it was the intent to insert it within the forest and then re-envelope it after completion with forest and native planting. The notion of driving to the home or walking to the home were of equal importance. 

The house is located along a public walking path. Many people stop with intrigue and inquiry as to how the home is organized and inserted into the landscape. This project embraces the fundamentals of architecture without objectifying it. Nestled in the landscape, transitions, volume, light, materiality, and spatial composition takes on a unique identity revolving around proper responses to the site, in lieu of the traditional nostalgic maritime approaches more often imported to the region. Deer Harbor House is an outlier. The impact lies in public seeing how modernism can be a cozy sweater.