Eiderdown

Eiderdown was a tear down renovation of an existing cottage whose insulation, mechanicals and structure had become too skeptical to retain. The client grew up spending summers in the old cottages of this Saco neighborhood and his parents still live in one across the street.

The property is about a block away from a beach with an angled view down the street which has several older cottages and an old camp style Inn. The design began around a primary desire to have an open living/dining/kitchen space on axis with that view to the beach (“the coffee view”) while accommodating 4 bedrooms and an office loft around a central, open staircase that would serve to connect the whole house physically and visually. We developed the scheme, cranking it on its site so as to aim the house at the view, which also sets up a cool angled relationship to the street and passersby. Interior materials are sheetrock walls, native white cedar on a few select walls and maple for the flooring and thick stair treads. The stair became a sculptural take on the union between vertical and horizontal geometries, with 5 tube steel columns running 3 stories from the basement to the turret/loft and downturned steel channels welded in between the columns as brackets for each tread. The result is a very open and flowing staircase that also allows extreme vertical ventilation (stack effect) up through the house on hot days. Low maintenance and energy efficiency were also top priorities and we used double stud wall construction, smart air barriers, triple pane windows, etc. to achieve a very efficient shell while cement panels and acetylated wood siding offer some very low maintenance exterior materials.

I appreciate any thoughts and feedback,
Dave Johnson