Habitat Passive House

The apparent front door opens onto a covered arcade that takes you past a walled garden to the real front door. The parts of the house are grouped around this contained garden, while also looking out to the cove.

This small house with a large presence draws from sources far and near: ancient Greek Doric temples, Palladio’s ‘Redentore’ and Villa Barbaro, Peter Harrison’s Redwood Library, Jefferson’s Monticello, Asher Benjamin’s carpenter pattern books, and local Greek Revival building traditions of Concord.

This house outside Boston was built of Chester County fieldstone to evoke Pennsylvania stone farmhouses the owners had admired when they were growing up around Philadelphia. The house and outbuildings, though new, have the feeling of having grown and evolved over time.

The Apple Tree Hill house perches lightly atop its hilly site, looking out eagerly onto a broad view of Kent Cove. Footings grow into posts which branch out to pull the roof taut across an exterior arcade. Walking outside is…