Pikes Hill

Pikes Hill

Completed 2017

1,989 square feet

Construction cost approx. $550,000

The clients purchased a large 9.5 acre lot at the top of Pikes hill in their hometown of Norway, Maine. With their new home, they had hoped to get distant mountain peak views as well as a glimpse of Lake Pennesseewassee beyond. But mostly they wanted a modestly sized home in nature that kept them warm in the coldest Maine winters while they did their daily exercises in an indoor endless pool. They also wanted a place to show off their prized collection of carved decoys.

We created an almost crystalline form that reflected the push and pull of the critical vectors that acted on the site: views directly to the NNW, an approach from the ESE, and of course sun from direct south. Then to reduce unnecessary volume, we peeled away the excess spaces, and scaled down any rooms that desired intimacy (the bedrooms) or did not require full height (the pool room). We then covered all conditioned areas with only two roof planes to visually bind the unique form.

Two-inch square steel tubes hidden inside the roof plane allow a deep but very thin overhang at the southern corner for more shade, and provide dramatic shadow on an otherwise closely cropped form. A similar detail reoccurs at the entry porch. An incrementally tapering staircase carves a little more space away in the entry foyer and leads your eye to the main living area beyond. From the main living space, a ribbon of glass opens to the view down the hill and to the lake beyond.

The exterior features locally milled tongue-and-groove cedar in two varying directions, with gaps not only at the verticals, but at the horizontal joints as well. A super-insulated, double-stud cavity with the interior wall being structural, allows for deep window insets and wrapping, clad exterior corner sills. This high-performance home (R40 walls, R60 roof, R20 slab, heat recovery ventilation, air-source heat pumps, triple glazing, passive house-level airtightness, solar-ready) needs just a single heat pump per floor, and utilizes the gas stove only to take the edge off the coldest of nights, perhaps right after dip in the pool.