Stonington Ridge House

Stonington, Connecticut

This home is located among the pastures and old stonewalls of a working farm. It is sited in an attempt to not dominate the landscape, but instead to actively participate in the site's multiple readings. Three distinct volumes nestle between two existing beech trees and reinforce an existing ridgeline that runs along the site. On approach, the west-facing public edge suggests an insular presence. The building skin folds in on itself, transforming and opening up to the landscape and sun through broad expanses of glass and large sliding doors toward the east and south. An undulating footprint defines a series of outdoor rooms which frame unique views from or through the house to the pastures, horizon, and sky.

Program spaces are distributed between the volumes, creating varied layers of occupation, which are altered and adapted through manipulation of shifting interior partitions.  Movement through the house from the west to the east reinforces the ridge’s declared levels of privacy and intimacy. The house unfolds in layers, culminating in unobstructed views of the farm and the ocean in the distance from a private balcony off the master bedroom, perched atop the living room roof.