This coastal Maine cottage reveals how barn-inspired structure works finest when type, materials, and website lead the design. As an alternative of counting on ornamental cues, the venture makes use of proportion, massing, and restraint to create a compound that feels grounded, quiet, and settled.
The outside retains acquainted barn silhouettes, damaged into a number of volumes to scale back scale and counsel long-term use. Wooden shingle siding, steep gables, and stable shutters reference regional farm buildings, whereas a granite base anchors the buildings into the hillside.
Designed by G.P. Schafer Architect, the house sits in Camden, Maine, on land as soon as half of a bigger turn-of-the-century property. Fairly than opening towards the road, the buildings face a central farm courtyard, creating privateness and directing views inward and towards the encompassing panorama.
The compound features a 3,300-square-foot predominant cottage, a separate yoga and meditation studio, and a storage with a bicycle shed. Collectively, the buildings learn as a small working cluster as an alternative of a single home, reinforcing the sense that the positioning developed over time.
This Maine barn cottage reveals that barn structure doesn’t want nostalgia to really feel genuine. When construction, materials, and website carry the design, the outcome feels timeless and rooted in place.
The cottage is constructed into the slope of the land, permitting each ranges to open on to outside areas. The decrease degree connects to the courtyard and backyard paths, whereas the higher degree engages with a west-facing backyard, bringing mild into the principle dwelling areas.
The first dwelling areas sit on the higher flooring. A tall timber-framed nice room anchors the plan, lined with reclaimed barn boards and spanned by hand-hewn oak trusses. A granite chimney with a single fireplace stone grounds the room and echoes the stone used all through the positioning.
French doorways open the nice room to a screened porch on one aspect and the courtyard on the opposite. Transom home windows above the doorways maintain the area open with out altering its construction.
Bedrooms, visitor areas, and repair rooms comply with the identical method. Supplies stay constant, layouts keep sensible, and finishes stay restrained. The decrease degree features a visitor suite, laundry, storage, and an extra bed room that opens to a fenced slicing backyard.
The panorama, designed by Mohr & Seredin, shapes how the home is skilled. Granite stepping stones lead from the parking space into the courtyard, whereas stone stairs and terraces deal with the change in elevation. A sequence of cascading fountain swimming pools, impressed by Japanese gardens, information motion from the higher backyard down into the farm court docket.
On the heart of the courtyard, an extended granite trough reflecting pool framed by apple bushes acts because the visible anchor. It reinforces the inward-facing structure and ties the structure to the land.
