Family Structure: Maine Rural Modern is Complete!
One of our profession’s most durable motifs is the house designed for the architect’s own parents. And it’s more than a cliché. GO Logic principal architect Matt O’Malia had his turn at this timeless rite of passage when his parents decided to move from their longtime home in Michigan to join their East Coast family in midcoast Maine. Today, Beverly and John O’Malia are comfortably ensconced in their new, ruggedly elegant, modern home—not to mention downsized, engaged with their new community, and ready for the next phase of their lives. Best of all, a project they initiated to bring their family closer together has had the desired effect, and then some.
The O’Malia’s residence, Maine Rural Modern, is located just outside of Belfast, Maine, on 10 acres of gently rolling pasture ringed by mixed woodland. In addition to the house, the property includes the barn where Matt’s family stable their horses. The elder O’Malias raised Matt and his two brothers in a similar setting, and their vision of retirement included reprising that experience with their grandchildren. As an extended family, John says, “We share so much, in terms of being outside, and barns and critters. That’s two strikes in our favor; Matt’s the third, in terms of his ability to design and build.”
Matt responded to his parents’ active, back-to-the-land retirement plan with an outdoor-focused site plan. The house hugs the property’s wooded northern boundary, facing south toward the barn and a wood-fenced paddock. The graveled main driveway brings guests to a casual dooryard at the front of the house, while an unobtrusive spur drive swings around to the rear, keeping parked cars—and the garage door—out of sight.
Matt and project architect Gunther Kragler composed the house using strong, simple forms with both modernist and agrarian associations. The building consists of three shed-roofed wings—one for living spaces, one for the three bedrooms, and one for the garage—separated by two glass-walled links. The forms are clean and contemporary, but their rustic exterior materials—cedar siding, fieldstone-faced foundations, and steel roofing—reflect the rural setting and the roughness of the adjacent barn. The foot-thick walls necessary for Passive House-level thermal insulation are evident at the deep window and door openings, lending a reassuring sense of shelter.
An apron of local granite pavers spreads out to the south, creating both an entry sequence and an outdoor dining space. The patio centers on a homemade housewarming gift: an outdoor farmhouse dining table assembled from rough-sawn local hemlock. In its rugged imperfection, John says, the table is perfect for the way he and Bev want to live here. “It’s like that granite patio,” he says. “It’s there to be used, and you can’t hurt it.”
Inside, the house’s single-level floor plan is a model of modernist clarity, with each wing mapping onto a different set of functions. The long main wing stretches from east to west, encompassing the entry and a combined kitchen, dining, and living space. A high wall at the south opens toward views of the barn and paddock, and to capture the solar gain that provides much of the building’s heat. A band of clerestory glazing is shaded by a slatted cedar screen that blocks unwanted summer sun while admitting lower-angle winter rays. Early phases of the design included both the shed roof and the more traditional alternative of a gable roof, which Matt expected his parents to prefer. John says, “He told Gunther, ‘The shed roof doesn’t stand a chance,’ “but we were very quickly unanimous in favor of that.”
The bedroom wing projects toward the north from the living area. Its single-loaded corridor is located under the high side of wing’s shed roof, which gives it a height proportional to that of the living areas. A floor-to-ceiling door closes off the corridor for privacy at the master suite. The master bedroom and two guest bedrooms face east, toward the morning sun and views of the field and woods. The guest bath includes a laundry closet and is convenient to the living spaces, obviating the need for a separate powder room. The garage wing is located at the building’s northwest corner, where it opens into the main entry.
A simple palette of interior finishes reinforces the floor plan’s schematic simplicity, with white walls and ceilings backdropping every room. Flush-front white cabinetry and white marble countertops give the kitchen a bright, clean look that doesn’t distract attention from the dining and living areas. The accent, instead, is on the main wing’s north wall, which is paneled with reclaimed oak boards. Detailed with blackened steel shelving and oak-and-steel storage benches that wrap into the living room and entry, this strong visual spine unifies the multifunction space. Atop the entryway bench rests a handsome black granite utility sink. Bev says, “The house is very cleverly designed, and there are some touches like that that make it utilitarian. I brought the horse buckets in the other day and washed them out.”
Matt came to the project with a full understanding of his parents’ lifestyle, and of their desire for a house that would gracefully support an active couple aging in place. “A first-floor bedroom suite, wide doors, a roll-in shower—that was all designed into the house,” Bev says. A large, heated storage basement, accessed via a space-saving motorized floor hatch, relieved the pressure of downsizing.
Like all GO Logic buildings, the O’Malia’s residence follows the Passive House model of energy efficiency and indoor air quality, so the house’s mechanical equipment consists primarily of a central heat-recovery ventilation system, a domestic water heater, and small electric baseboard heating units. Thanks to the superinsulated building shell, high-performance triple-glazed windows and doors, and meticulous air-sealing, most of the space heating not supplied by the sun comes from incidental sources like the refrigerator and television—and from the occupants themselves. “Our house in Michigan was pretty energy efficient,” John says, “but not like this. Nothing’s like this.”
Photos by Trent Bell
