TWO SHEDS HOUSE

The design of this house is driven by two overriding conditions. The first is the desire by the client, a Boston-based family of four, to create a relaxed and informal place to gather with friends and extended family. This family brings a lot of design savvy to the project, having extensive experience in restaurant and real estate development, and they see the house as an opportunity to bring together their interest in design, contemporary art, and an unpretentious lifestyle.

The other primary condition of the house is its exceptional oceanfront site whose gently sloping topography and the ever-present island scrub oaks open to the immediate presence of Lambert’s Cove and Vineyard Sound. The natural beauty of the site comes with some intense coastal weather too. Rather than trying to resist the impact of this environment, the building materials — Western Red Cedar rainscreen, zinc metal roofs, and aluminum doors and windows — will respond by developing develop a low maintenance weathering patina.

PROJECT LOCATION
Martha's Vineyard, MA

PROJECT SIZE

4,000 SF

PROJECT TYPE

Residential, Single Family, Waterfront

CLIENT

Private

The form of the project, two long shed-like buildings, eschews the conventional colonial Vineyard house prototype. The long shed building type is an ideal form for reaching across the site and for making simple spaces with big openings. The two main volumes shift and stagger to create a common space for the deck and lap pool, while also positioning every room to have a view of the water and direct access to the outside. The modified ridge and gable forms of the roofs are expressed throughout the spaces, gesturing to the site, and amplifying their relationship to the exceptional views of the water.

Getting to this house is a process of discovery. Like many Vineyard properties, the house is at the end a web of narrow sandy roads that emerge into a gently sloping driveway that reveals the first volume on the property — a detached guesthouse and garage. From there a boardwalk draws you to the glass entry of the two main volumes of the house. The boardwalk pierces the entry, and extends out to become a common deck and ocean views framed by the two volumes.