LOUDON COTTAGE

This weekend house in Virginia’s Horse and Hunt Country brings the simple, vernacular forms of the region’s farmhouses and outbuildings in conversation with craft and space planning that, though fully contemporary, draw inspiration from progressive cottage architecture of the late 19th century.

Separate pavilions for entertaining/living and sleeping take advantage of the site’s rolling topography; the main pavilion, in ashlar with a paired gable and monumental vault, references Lutyens in spirit while allowing the materials and their assembly to take precedence. Entering through the deeply-set entry, the interior spaces flow around a central hearth and library, with windows located strategically aligned along view corridors. The varying sizes of spaces are highlighted by maintaining a dado of redwood paneling throughout - lending each space a different character depending on its proportion, rather than applied decoration.

Openings in the walls and between the pavilions break down the solidity of the primary masses, orienting movement through the rooms around framed views toward the spectacular countryside, and allowing the interior spaces to spill out into the landscape along a glazed passage between the two pavilions.

Loudon County, VA

Client: Private

In Progress