Lake Michigan Cottage, New Buffalo, Michigan

Dune Cottage was a unique opportunity to fashion an entire environment, both interior and exterior, which satisfied our client’s evocative goal. This objective was to blur the distinction between inside and outside through the use of transparency, scale, texture, and color, while creating a private outdoor space as foreground to the dramatic Lake vista beyond.
The Cottage appears from the “public elevation” as an assemblage of relatively opaque house forms of varying size and scale, which in combination belie the true scope of the home. Conversely, from Lake Michigan, the private side, the Cottage is a largely transparent “V” shape that embraces the stone and landscaped courtyard. The Lake itself delineates the remaining side. Study of the field/ground diagram was utilized to erode the plan, interlocking living spaces with nature.
The exterior palette of natural wood shingles, white-washed wood planes, hand-split stone, and copper-clad windows and roof declares the theme of natural materials that continues throughout, augmented by hand-finished mahogany cabinetry and vaulted wood ceilings, and stone floors and countertops. Accents of natural greens, reds and woodland colors are provided by the architect-designed furniture, carpets, and accessories, echoing the recurring domestic form of the architecture and the high color of the seasons and the Lake.
This prospect is “contained” by the massing and showcased through the floor-to-ceiling glazing. These glass panels are designed to slide out of sight, further rendering built form and nature indistinct. Beyond the “living porches” that open to adjacent interior spaces and the stone terraces, is the Dune Deck that cantilevers over the edge of the bluff, giving dramatic emphasis to the merging of the Cottage and the site’s natural surroundings.
Dune Cottage illustrates our belief that an abstract notion can inform the design of a project without sacrificing aesthetics on the altar of whimsy.