Between Silence and Light

Goal
Create a weekend living environment that nourishes family life in a calmness of the seasons and the silence of an island's light.

Challenge
Design for a narrow lot on the environmentally-sensitive shore of Puget Sound with no space for a conventional septic system.

Solution
The house is anchored to the site on a field stone base; a hemlock wood interior renders a non-aging light wood color. Sunlight fills an exterior morning coffee terrace, sheltered from wind on the east side while a covered porch on the west side affords cover and shade for the living room in the afternoon sun, or the sometimes rain.  A vertical sand filter septic system is integrated into the house planters.

Publication
'A Place Apart' - Puget Sound Magazine

Photography
Michael Shoppenn