Shingled Retreat

Cape Cod, MA

The site is located within the protected Cape Cod National Seashore, not far from where the Mayflower first landed. Behind the dunes and one hundred fifty feet below the site’s sandy bluff lies the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean side is windswept and bears the brunt of powerful storms. Inland, undulating lowlands thick with brush extend uninterrupted to the horizon.

This new cottage replaces a decaying 1940s house, which had been visited for over thirty years by its Washington owners.

The cottage is held back from the shifting dunes and arrayed linearly along the edge of the protected lowlands. Inspired by the utilitarian forms of vernacular New England seaside cottages, it is arranged as a series of three linked, shingled buildings. Smaller double-hung windows on the windward side frame views and protect against powerful wind-driven sand. Large expanses of glass on the calm, leeward side offer sweeping views of the inland horizon.