A family with a deep love for nature commissioned Whitten Architects to bring their dream of a multigenerational getaway home in Maine to life. They envisioned a place where generations of their family could come together, connect with nature, and create lasting memories. The master plan is a family campus featuring this main house for gathering, three “sibling” cottages, a boathouse, and a dock.

These structures were designed to inherit select architectural traits from the DNA of the main house, creating a cohesive environment. Working in collaboration with the civil engineer and landscape architect, the architects created a composition for each of these structures to live, as a family, independently, and also with each other.‍

DESIGN DETAILS: ARCHITECT Whitten Architects BUILDER Wright-Ryan Homes INTERIOR DESIGNER Heidi Lachapelle Interiors STRUCTURAL ENGINEER Albert Putnam Associates LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Sarah Witte, Landscape Architect and Keith Smith Landscape Architecture LANDSCAPE INSTALLATION Stoney Brook Landscape and Masonry OUTDOOR KITCHEN MASONRY Stoney Brook Landscape and Masonry METAL WORK Italian Green Design CABINETWORK Northe Woodworking LIGHTING AVDG Lighting

The main house was strategically sited parallel to the coastline on an east-west axis to capture both bay views and daylight. The body of the house is a two-story gabled structure. Like a forest under-story, the first floor is mostly transparent, with vertical ash siding and galvanized columns.

The second story resembles a tree canopy, clad in eastern white cedar shingles with punched openings. Elongated porches extend outward to connect the single-story garage and pool house.

The porch from the garage is glazed, housing the mudroom. This arrangement creates a broad courtyard to the north that welcomes you in, while the south side of the home reaches toward the ocean with two glazed porches that draw living space into the landscape.

Upon approach to the front door, guests are welcomed into an entry hall with views to the bay, islands, and opposite shore.

Inside, the floor plan was designed to accommodate daily routines for two people or to accommodate larger gatherings with ease. Each space was designed to have its own identity and scale, accommodating multiple activities. Functionally, the design accommodates an outdoor lifestyle by providing out-of-the-way storage for gear and spaces to transition from outdoors to indoors.

For the interiors, Heidi LaChapelle selected materials, fabrics, and colors that invite a connection to the landscape. Wright-Ryan Homes applied a high level of craftsmanship to bring all these elements together.

A corner window at a breakfast banquette invites the dynamic color and textures of the landscape into the space.

On the east side of the home, the kitchen is positioned to gather morning light and have a view of the driveway and entry porch. The pantry provides utility space, enabling the kitchen to be a social space.

What We Love: This coastal Maine home fits into the surrounding environment seamlessly, providing the homeowners with a stunning retreat. Living spaces are warm and inviting with gorgeous design details throughout. The finished result of this project is a truly special place that embodies the vision of the owners while serving as a wonderful multi-generational gathering place to be enjoyed for years to come.

Tell Us: What details in the design of this multigenerational getaway home do you find most appealing? Let us know in the Comments below!

Note: Be sure to check out a couple of other incredible home tours that we have showcased here on One Kindesign in the state of Maine: This rustic mountain home provides a peaceful escape in the woods of Maine and This Maine summer camp offers a fabulous getaway on Long Lake.

 The dining room is housed in a glazed porch a few steps down from the main living level, which feels at once indoors and outdoors.

A home office is tucked around the corner from the kitchen providing privacy and maintaining a connection to the daily comings and goings.

On the west side of the home, a stone-clad fireplace anchors the living room, and a pocketing glass door opens to a screen porch that draws you toward an outdoor room for barbecuing, dining, and sitting by the fire.

 From the entry hall, a sculptural stair brings you to the second-floor primary suite and guest bedrooms.

The pool house provides a space for recreation and exercise in every season, with floor-to-ceiling glass and corner windows that blur the boundary between inside and out.

The owners desired a multigenerational getaway home that blends with the coastal Maine landscape, aging gracefully with minimal maintenance. Landscape Architects Sarah Witte and Keith Smith selected local granite and native plants.

The architects selected natural materials like thermally modified ash siding, local eastern white cedar shingles, and galvanized steel columns that will become more complementary with each other and with the landscape over time.

The building envelope was designed for durability, resilience, and energy efficiency. The architects integrated passive systems such as robust stormwater management at the foundation, an air-tight and vapor-open envelope, continuous exterior insulation at the wall assemblies, triple-pane glass, and a vented secondary roof.

GUEST HOUSE

This single-story home celebrates the beauty of the woods from every vantage point. The design utilizes large floor-to-ceiling windows, expansive glass walls, and an open-plan layout to maximize views and natural light, linking back to the glass porch language of the main house. When possible, hidden window frames were used to add to the feeling of living in nature.

A transparent entry/mudroom welcomes guests as they approach. The storage was intentionally placed central to this space, breaking up sight lines between the public and private sides of the house.

A pocketing door between the living room and the screened porch lets you feel both inside and out. Service spaces, storage, and utilities line the northern edges of the house allowing the view to remain unencumbered. The spaces are designed to be flexible enough to entertain a group, or for solitary moments of tranquility.

PHOTOGRAPHER Trent Bell Photography