This house on a Maine woodlot is designed as a weave of volumes and courtyards that strikes a precise balance between solid and void. Neither a carved solid, nor aggregate volumes within a continuous void, the interior rooms and exterior courtyards are both continuous, but meet only at their upper and lower corners. More renderings and drawings of the Woodlot House by FreelandBuck following the break.
Architects: FreelandBuck Location: Falmouth, Maine, USA Project Team: Brennan Buck, David Freeland, Kate Thatcher
The alternation of mass and void in plan is patterned on an imagined paranoic proliferation of deer stand hunting platforms throughout the forest. The resulting footprint is integrated with its site through porosity rather than topological continuity. The weave of exterior and interior space infuses the periodically occupied house with color and light that change hue and intensity with the seasons.
The footprint doubles as a tree clearing strategy – a wedge opening up views to the ocean as it is approached from above. From the driveway, the roof of the house stands as foreground for the view out over the forest. The exterior walls are sheathed in oversized shingles which open up to modulate light and specific views to the sides.
