Lewis Lane, Saco Maine

New 3040 sf residence in a small, coastal Maine town

Objectives:

• Family-friendly design focused on fun, entertaining and flexibility
• Eco-friendly materials choices, energy efficiency and contemporary style
• A house that is as good to the environment as it is to the family that lives in it

Our clients approached us for this project with a fairly simple brief:  three bedrooms, all the usual spaces a modern family of four needs, a painting studio and a partly finished basement.  More particularly, they asked that all spaces be designed in such a way as to be connected but also could be made private, when needed.  We investigated a number of potential sites with our clients: sketch designs included a “double house” with an existing woodland trail running through its two main blocks, an elongated modern shotgun style cabin with vaulted ceiling spaces and others, each having this basic program in mind. The Saco site that was eventually selected is a flat, street corner site in an existing small town neighborhood.  

The site suggested many things to us, but we all quickly agreed that it screamed for a wrap around porch, occupying the street corner.  Thus the concept of a modern farmhouse, “designed” from the ground up, was settled upon. 

The resulting design includes consideration of the site during construction, eco friendly materials choices – from framing right through to finishes – and energy efficiency.  The house was also designed to take advantage of the passive solar opportunities the site offered as well as the future installation of solar panels.  With porches, interior spaces that can be closed or opened, and an open stair that runs from the finished basement up to the third floor painting studio, there’s plenty of room to run around and grow – and that’s to say nothing of the hide and seek games…