Laura Kaehler

Our client asked us to design a guest house with ample space and natural light.

The site is rustic and is located in an area with older homes and barns; we took our cue for the design from this local vernacular. We designed the home to resemble three stone barns that could have been built on the property years ago and then “renovated” for their current use. We then joined these stone barns with transparent glass connectors with flat contemporary roofs. Because stone barns are not known for their large expanses of natural daylight, we opened up these stone volumes with one and two-story glass cantilevered boxes, which accentuates their modernity within the old barn vernacular.

Key Design Features

To blend the home into the landscape, we designed the three stone structures around the existing rock outcroppings. This required careful attention to blast around the rock in order to allow an interplay between the interior and exterior of the new structures.

To add intrigue and surprise when approaching the home, the driveway was designed to curve up and around the existing rock and to allow the structures to unfold slowly.

Natural materials were used throughout to blend into the environment. The exterior of the house consists of fieldstone walls and cedar roofing with large fir timbers and “living green” roof gardens, while wood flooring and walls with fir timbers are found throughout the interior.