Just Getting to the Front Door of This Family’s Midcoast Maine Retreat Is an Adventure

A series of compact cabins that include a Japanese-inspired bath house keep a multigenerational family connected in the woods.

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Marni Elyse Katz

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Jeff Roberts

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"I always aim to think about the site first, followed by how built space fits into that," Joanna Shaw says. A principal at Winkelman Architecture, she took that approach with her clients’ 35-plus-acre site, thoroughly exploring its gently sloped shores along Midcoast Maine with landscape architect Kenneth Studtmann of Richardson & Associates. "We carried gear in L.L. Bean tote bags—a camping stove, tools, drafting supplies—plus a folding table and chairs and stored it all in an old, shingled fishing hut on the property," says Shaw. "There was so much to experience."

Architect Joanna Shaw designed a summer camp–style retreat for a family in Midcoast Maine, starting with a single cabin about five years ago. Now, it holds a series of structures, including a "gathering pavilion" with the kitchen and dining and living areas. Each takes its own shape. "The kitchen building is hunkered down and has a flat roof, which is a very different architectural language than the large volume of the guest bedroom tower," Shaw says.

Months of observation led to the building of the grounds’ first structure about five years ago, the Far Cabin, a small refuge on the western edge of the site. The clients, a young family of four, spent a few summers here as the rest of the summer camp–style retreat unfolded. "The cabin was a case study for testing ideas to pull into other buildings [on the property]," Shaw says. "We loved the materials and stuck with them."

In the years to follow, a collection of five buildings connected by trails and boardwalks went up between the trees. "We didn’t want [the home] to impact the site too much; instead, we made compact, precise insertions," the architect explains. "Think of it as breaking a house into a handful of puzzle pieces and scattering those pieces around."

A covered boardwalk connects the mudroom and guest bedroom to the gathering pavilion. The boardwalk in the foreground leads to cabin with the primary bedroom.

Entry Tower: Mudroom + Guest Bedrooms

A road brings visitors deep into the site, through a little woodland orchard, to a tiny carport. Here, they follow a walking path to a two-and-a-half story building with a Cor-Ten steel façade that marks the arrival point. The ground floor of this tower-like building is a mudroom where everyone can drop their belongings, while the second floor and the two layers of lofts above are for guests, of which there are often many.

Shaw and the clients talked a lot about materials and how they would weather. "As Cor-Ten ages, it darkens to the color of the pine needles on the forest floor so the building will recede into the site," Shaw says.

Shaw clad the mudroom in cedar planks but distinguished its entry with Cor-Ten steel panels. The same siding is used for the gathering pavilion. "The metal starts off silvery then turns brown, and the bright amber wood weathers to a soft gray," Shaw notes. "A transference of color tones occurs during the aging process."

Shaw thinks of the covered boardwalk connecting the mudroom and gathering spaces as an outdoor hallway.

Gathering Pavilion: Kitchen, Dining, Living

A covered boardwalk serves as an outdoor hallway by connecting the mudroom to the home’s central gathering place: A low-slung rectangular building containing the dining area, kitchen, and living room. "The roof of the boardwalk protects you from the rain and snow, but you still get a walk in the woods," Shaw says. "You hear the birds and feel the breeze."

Outside the dining area and kitchen, Cor-Ten steel columns support deep eaves. "The building is open and accessible on multiple sides, recalling a pavilion where you might gather in a park," Shaw says. "Rather than front doors defining entry or exit points, there’s porosity."

While the architectural forms of the cabins vary, the interiors are all peaceful and bright, with polished concrete floors, plaster walls, and pine ceilings with hemlock beams. "The interiors don’t compete with the outdoors," Shaw says. "The shifting sunlight and views—woods, water, wildlife—are the elements that give the spaces life."

The interiors combine polished concrete floors, plaster walls, and a pine ceiling with hemlock beams. The bend in the floor plan follows the site’s topography.

Oriented east, the dining area, kitchen, and living room capture morning light. "This seemed appropriate for morning rituals and the first coming together of the day," Shaw says. The act of congregating for meals takes cues from the daily rhythms of summer camp, an idea that was important to the family. "Camp has places to come together and others to retreat," the architect says. "The ebb and flow of stepping apart and coming together defined how we thought about the buildings."

Large sliders open to an outdoor gathering space with natural granite pavers separated by shaggy strips of grass.

The kitchen’s concrete countertops complement the handcrafted cabinetry.

The living room’s woodburning fireplace has a concrete hearth that wraps the chimney and runs under the windows, acting as seating, a plant ledge, and a place to store logs.

Near Cabin: Grandparents’ Sleeping Quarters

For the older generation, Shaw designed a one-room studio, dubbed the Near Cabin, which is accessible by car via a secondary road branching off the main road. The little cabin has a partially sheltered deck that looks toward the gathering pavilion and entry tower, as well as to the water. Built-in storage and seating line the interiors.

A stone dust path that is easily navigable on foot or by wheelchair leads from the kitchen to the Near Cabin, which is used by the family’s grandparents. "We used boardwalks only for the most frequently traversed paths since they impact the site more than a simple walkway," Shaw says.

"The Near Cabin has a close but distant relationship to the gathering spaces," Shaw says. "Trees provide privacy but there is a visual connection, especially at night when you can see the lights on in the guest bedrooms if someone is awake."

A partition creates a nook for the bed in the grandparents’ cabin.

Primary Bedroom: Family’s Sleeping Quarters

The building with the primary bedroom and a loft for the kids connects to the gathering spaces with a boardwalk, this time uncovered. It’s sited in a natural opening in the forest with nice light and a view of the islands from the gently sloping, rocky coast.

An open-air boardwalk connects the gathering spaces to the family’s bedroom cabin at the east end of the site.

As with the mudroom, a Cor-Ten steel façade indicates the main entry of the primary bedroom building. "The sun shines right through the building in late afternoon," Shaw remarks.

"The interiors don’t compete with the outdoors. The shifting sunlight and views—woods, water, wildlife—are the elements that give the spaces life."

—Joanna Shaw, architect

The plinth for the ladder to the sleeping loft in the primary bedroom building doubles as a bench. Storage along the wall connects with a desk, and a window seat nestles into the corner.

The children’s sleeping loft has corner windows with water views.

The parents sleep in the main cathedral-ceilinged space with a wall of glass facing the ocean, while the kids climb the ladder just inside the door to a sleeping loft. The family of four share the serene bath, which feels like a greenhouse in the forest, complete with a glass door to an outdoor shower.

The homeowners’ sleeping area opens wide to the outdoors, and a wood-burning stove supplements the cabin’s geothermal and solar-powered heating systems.

A freestanding slipper tub floats in the center of the primary bath, separated from the walk-in shower with a frameless glass panel that nearly reaches the ceiling.

A private outdoor shower outside the primary bathroom has an ocean view.

Wellness Outposts: Sento + Dojo

Japanese-inspired wellness rituals were essential for the family. Shaw designed a sento, a Japanese-style bathing house, at the end of an existing shore trail. On the deck, a sunken hot tub and cold plunge pool have stunning water views. Inside is a shower and wood-fired sauna. "They are very much about ritual," Shaw says. "They love to build and tend fires."

The main deck of the sento is level with the ledge, resulting in an eye level view of the ocean. The elevated site also offers privacy to those soaking, as they are not immediately visible from either trail. "There’s time to cover up as you hear someone approaching," Shaw says.

The structure’s layered decks reflects the clients’ love of Japanese architecture.

Others make their way from the guest quarters or gathering pavilion on a path that snakes through the woods, passing the the Dojo, a judo studio, along the way. "The Dojo and Sento are both elevated, so there’s wandering and climbing involved," Shaw says. "Getting to them is a bit of a commitment; there’s a pilgrimage effect."