Award-Winning Architecture
Architects share their best residential work at AIANH’s annual competition.
The New Hampshire chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIANH) is pleased to share projects submitted to the 2021 Excellence in Architecture Design Awards Program.
This year’s jury, a group of four architects from the Connecticut AIA chapter, reviewed 37 project entries, which included six residential submissions. A total of 12 projects were selected to receive awards, two of which are residential projects. The jury selected winning projects based on overall design excellence, including aesthetics, clarity, creativity, relevant functionality, building performance and appropriateness with regard to the client’s vision. The jury also considered projects based on response to the AIA Framework for Design Excellence, which defines excellent design in the 21st century.
Comprising 10 principles, the framework seeks to inform progress toward a zero carbon, equitable, resilient and healthy built environment.
AIANH is planning an awards celebration at Alnoba in Kensington on September 23. This will also be the first time the chapter has gathered in person since the beginning of the pandemic. Learn more at aianh.org.
—Bonnie Kastel
Halfmile House
A modern family home achieves exceptional sustainability, and captures views of Lake Winnipesaukee and the New Hampshire woods. The home’s two overlapping volumes are designed to minimize surface area and accommodate the site’s irregular shape, while creating distinct private and public wings. A sliver of the shore is visible through the front door. On entering the compact foyer, the living space expands toward the shore, and the lake view is revealed through tall triple-paned windows. Twelve-inch-thick, super-insulated walls and triple-paned windows minimize energy loss, while strategic window placement maximizes natural light and views. The home uses geothermal heating and cooling, and incorporates sustainable materials. The landscaping incorporates native plants, permeable groundcover and boulders unearthed in the excavation. Tree cutting was minimized to preserve the tree line along the shore and maintain privacy.
Bloom Architecture in Boston, Massachusetts • (617) 607-4589 • bloomarchitecture.com
General Contractor: Haycon Building, LLC in Boston, Massachusetts
Landscape Architect: Terrain Planning & Design, LLC in Hopkinton
Structural Engineer: TLH Consulting, Inc. in Billerica, Massachusetts
PHOTOS BY DAVID KURTIS
HONOR AWARD: Excellence in Architectural Design, Residential
Loon Lake Retreat
The clients have deep roots in Freedom, a small town situated between the Lakes Region and the White Mountains. They imagined a home that expressed enduring ties to this place while reflecting a breadth of ideas learned abroad. The T-shape plan implies two courtyards— extending the domestic zone of the home into the landscape. Granite boulders, emerging between hardscape, express the splice of the architectural intervention with nature. The entry courtyard is to the north, and the south courtyard gestures toward the fire pit and lake. The living space opens with glass sliding doors and a corner window to the lake. The master bedroom opens to a private patio with an outdoor shower facing the lake. The clients challenged Whitten Architects to think deeply about how a home can be an expression of a particular place and unique people. See more about this spectacular home in the story “Stunning Simplicity” on page 50.
Whitten Architects in Portland, Maine • (207) 774-0111 • whittenarchitects.com
General Contractor: K.P. Hood Construction in Meredith
Landscape Architect: Soren Deniord Design Studio in Portland, Maine
Structural Engineer: Albert Putnam Associates, LLC in Brunswick, Maine
PHOTO BY TRENT BELL
New Hampshire Residence
The goal was to provide an extended multigenerational family home to serve as a gathering place. The curved driveway offers glimpses of the house as you approach the home, sited on a natural plateau halfway down the sloped site. A tapered stair tower marks the pivot point between the home approach and the post-and-beam barn farther down the slope, which can be seen from the great room. A warm entry greets guests and family with stone, timber and a large fireplace. The entry and the kitchen are at the plan’s core and anchor the home. To the right are private spaces, and to the left are the entertaining spaces. The main level includes the entry, kitchen, dining room, great room, informal living room, master bedroom and master bath. Twelve geothermal wells heat and cool the home. Stone and heavy timber recall imagery from the matriarch’s home in Montana.
Cowan | Goudreau Architects, PLLC in Concord
(617) 542-6060 • mgaarchitects.com
General Contractor: Sharpe Builders in Hopkinton
PHOTOS BY JOHN W. HESSION
Tahilla Farm
This project was a 2,050-square-foot renovation of a 1791 farmhouse with new 3,500-square-foot additions, including a 900-square-foot guesthouse/studio and a woodshed that replaced a dilapidated barn. These structures were designed as outdoor-gathering and garden spaces, including pollinator gardens. New fields increased the wildlife habitat around the house and enhanced the mountain views.
Sheldon Pennoyer Architects in Concord • (603) 856-8994 • spennoyerarchitects.com
General Contractor: Tim Groesbeck Builders in Sharon
Landscape Architect: Gordon Hayward in Putney, Vermont
Stonework: Dan Snow Stoneworks in Brattleboro, Vermont
PHOTOS BY JOE VALENTINE
MERIT AWARD: Excellence in Architectural Design, Residential
The Enchanted Cottage
The Enchanted Cottage is a historic camp on Newfound Lake that provides the owner with all the modern conveniences of 21st-century living that still maintains the timeless character of a quintessential early-1900s New Hampshire lakefront camp. Despite its entirely new construction, the camp’s design builds on the vernacular of the smaller single-story camp that was original to the site. The second level of the new camp adds a bedroom, bathroom, entertainment nook and window that frames a view of the mountains. Exposed reclaimed rafters and a towering natural-stone fireplace help bring friends and family back to a turn-of-thecentury way of life. At the same time, a modern heating system and super-insulated building envelope are much-appreciated modern conveniences. The landscape consists of native plants and stonework that echo the natural surroundings.
Christopher P. Williams Architects, PLLC in Meredith (603) 279-6513 • cpwarchitects.com
General Contractor: White House Construction in Gilford
Landscape Architect: Scott Burns Landscaping in Center Harbor
PHOTO BY JOHN W. HESSION
The Sandcastle
A concept resembling a sandcastle addresses many of the client’s objectives: having a tiered form and controlling the exterior visual scale, while also managing the volume of interior spaces. A footpath follows the natural sloping contours of the site, connecting the house to the beach. The home is set back from the shoreline, which provides a better connection with the lake, by optimizing lakefront yard space for entertaining, playing games and enjoying the lakefront. The impressive central living area features a cantilevered timber-framed clerestory and cupola that reaches up to bring sunlight into the space from all available directions. The result is an uplifting quality, while still offering intimate and interesting spaces. The building envelope is airtight and robust in design, providing positive drying opportunity to the interior and exterior. The exterior assemblies are composites of thoughtful layering of natural and recycled materials—which have very low VOCs—with careful attention to detail intended to optimize performance and longevity. NHH
Christopher P. Williams Architects, PLLC in Meredith (603) 279-6513 • cpwarchitects.com
General Contractor: Meridian Construction Company in Gilford
Structural Engineer: Omega Structural Engineers, PLLC in Newbury
Timber Frame Design: Mink Hill Timber Frame Homes in Warner
PHOTOS BY JOHN W. HESSION
