WE DESIGNED THIS VACATION COTTAGE RETREAT in Camden, Maine, for a sophisticated couple who divide their time the rest of the year between New York and Boston. Consisting of a 3,300 square foot barn-style cottage, a separate yoga and mediation studio, and a garage and bicycle shed, the three structures form a compound organized around a small courtyard.
THE LAND WAS ORIGINALLY part of a large, turn-of-the-century estate that stretched from a hilltop above the site all the way down to the water below it. Our clients purchased the lower lot of the recently subdivided property, and we designed a cottage and outbuildings for the site to be sheltered from the adjacent houses by organizing all of the structures around a small farm court, as if these buildings had once been part of the old estate. This allowed us to create a unique and private experience on an otherwise open street by focusing views into the new farm courtyard, up to the rising wooded hillside to the west, and out to the sea down below the compound to the east.
THREE SETS OF FRENCH DOORS open into the Cottage’s lower-level entry hall, filling the space with light from the garden courtyard just outside. The lower level also contains a mudroom, laundry and storage rooms and a charming guest suite, while the upper level holds all of the entertaining spaces and the master suite.