cottage at fulling mill brook

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Info: Project Details

Since first visiting the island, we have enjoyed both the rural Chilmark landscape and the architectural exuberance of the cottages of Oak Bluffs. Our original idea was to build a similar cottage, but the site that was available (and affordable) implied something a little different. It suggested a “tree house.” Both ideas are combined in the cottage we designed.

The porch, with its curves and brackets, recalls the Victorian Gothic of Oak Bluffs, but the details are flattened, and enlarged to be visible from a distance through the trees. We reinterpreted the in-town model for a more rural woodland site. When approached from the road, the front is seen through a “cathedral” of trees. Vertical elements in the porch structure, and the board and batten siding on the adjacent wall, echo the scale and verticality of the trees. The porch is scaled to the landscape beyond, not the tiny house to which it is attached.

Like shoreline houses designed to expand water views, we put the living spaces on the second floor. In our case, it was not a water view we were seeking, but the feeling of being up in the trees. The second floor location also allowed us to give the living space more drama by opening it up into the tent-like volume defined by the roof, the height of which was set by a twenty-four-foot limit. A strip of windows that fold around the east, south and west sides, provide treetop views and makes the small living space almost porch-like. Broad overhangs provide shading from the summer sun.