Estes Twombly + Titrington Architects excels at designing houses that are deeply rooted in Rhode Island’s history of farm sheds and shingled fishing shacks. This multigenerational retreat effortlessly distills those qualities with its offset, simple volumes and low-upkeep materials, such as weathered wood cladding, metal roofs and windows, and stone. The house seems to grow from the land: bluestone pavers on the entry porch lead straight through the building to the rear screened porch and outdoor terraces—a reference to the boulders that dot the back lawn, which rambles down to Quonochontaug Pond and the open ocean beyond. Facing south, the fully glazed living pavilion brings in those views, and its roofline maximizes sun exposure for 7-kilowatt solar panels that power the geothermal heating and cooling system and a car charger.
“When you look at the scale of the water there, you want to walk along the whole thing, so we tried to stretch the house out as much as possible east-west,” says Adam Titrington, AIA. A flat planted roof connects the long, one-story living volume to a perpendicular two-story bedroom wing. The judges praised this design for its marriage of the modern and vernacular, including a vegetable garden, native plantings, and a permeable driveway and parking court.
[To see our previous expanded coverage of this project, click here.]
Citation
Custom Period or Vernacular House
Estes Twombly + Titrington Architects
Quahaug Point
Westerly, Rhode Island
Project Credits
Architect: Peter Twombly, AIA, principal in charge; Adam Titrington, AIA, project architect, Estes Twombly + Titrington Architects, Newport, Rhode Island
Builder: Evergreen Building Systems, Stonington, Connecticut
Landscape architect: Robyn Reed, studio cosmo, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Landscape contractor: Landscape Creations of Rhode Island, S. Kingston, Rhode Island
Project size: 3,000 square feet
Site size: 2 acres
Construction cost: Withheld
Photography: Warren Jagger
Key Products
Cabinetry: Custom rift ash
Cabinetry hardware: Sugatsune
Cladding: Alaskan yellow cedar shingles, garapa rainscreen
Countertops: Caesarstone, Corian
Dishwasher: Bosch
Door hardware: FSB levers, Accurate flush pulls and Häfele roller and track (pocket doors)
Entry doors: Fleetwood
Interior doors: Select Door, rift ash veneer
Kitchen faucets: Hansgrohe; Dornbracht
Kitchen ventilation: Broan
Landscape pavers: Thermal bluestone reclaimed granite curbing
Landscape products: Soapstone countertop, garapa cabinetry and fencing, bluestone edging, Mexican river stone
Lighting: Hunza, Sonneman (exterior), Lucifer, Poulsen, Moooi (interior)
Lighting control systems: Lutron
Microwave drawer: Sharp
Paints: Benjamin Moore
Range/ovens: Wolf
Refrigerator: Sub-Zero
Roofing: Englert standing seam
Sinks: Kohler; Fairmont
Solar panels: Newport Solar
Thermal/moisture barriers: VaproShield
Tile: Heath Tiles (kitchen backsplash), Quemere (shower)
Toilets: TOTO
Windows and door systems: Fleetwood
Window shading systems: Lutron, Hunter Douglas