EASTHAM MODERN HOUSE
Eastham, MA | 2023
Architecture
WALKER ARCHITECTS
General Contractor
AMBROSE HOMES
The outer reaches of Cape Cod have an interconnected tradition of two residential building types. The older is signified by one or more simple volumes, skinned in a taut jacket of cedar shingles with minimal trim, built to resist coastal weather with little fuss or upkeep required. Overlaid on that tradition is a history of mid-century modern vacation homes built by Bauhaus emigrees and their followers in the second half of the twentieth century; this second style having similar concerns as the first but with a vocabulary that often included flat roofs and larger expanses of glass. This house follows almost unavoidably in those footsteps.
Sited in a second growth forest of pitch pine and scrub oak, the house is comprised of three boxy volumes, oriented to capture the passage of the sun, acknowledging different approaches by vehicle or by foot, and capitalizing on an undulating local topography. A lower volume houses a garage, home office, and two bedrooms. A taller, more glassy volume is a single room for living, dining and cooking functions. A series of decks and balconies trace both passages and places of repose, and allow for easy connections to the landscape. The volumes are clad in white cedar shingles left to weather to a silver gray, and a darker integrally colored cement fiber panel system. Windows are almost always detailed as the absence of wall, divided to allow for openings and ventilation as needed.
