Martha’s Vineyard Concrete Home Wins Design Award

The Chilmark home wins the Boston Society of Architects Best Housing Design award.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHUCK CHOI for Boston Home magazine

Recent awards by the Boston Society of Architects honored an innovative Martha’s Vineyard property in Chilmark, previously featured in Boston Home, as one of the finest in housing design. The 4,000-square-foot structure, called East House and designed by Peter Rose + Partners, is made of movable concrete units that can be separated, lifted, and hoisted away when shoreline erosion creeps closer.

In the beginning stages, the property owners were looking to build something completely new and untraditional, but also environmentally sound, and responsive to the natural surroundings. “Full sustainability meant not just solar panels or green products, but truly making environmental consciousness a part of the building,” Matthew Snyder, a principal at Peter Rose + Partners, told Boston Home.

The team decided on the idea for a single-level structure composed of a group of interconnected modular boxes. The concrete was caste on site, with concrete floors that offer radiant heating and cooling, and 10-inch thick walls. Douglas Fir and Alaskan Cedar planked walls, and Spanish Cedar window frames were sustainably sourced. Operable glass windows pull back, and the gap between concrete units amplifies the sound of the ocean.

Read more about this award-winning property in the Fall 2014 issue of Boston Home

MANY OF THE ROOMS ARE FRAMED AND FINISHED IN WOOD, INCLUDING THE KITCHEN. OPPOSITE, FROM TOP, THE AIRY LIVING ROOM; AN ACOUSTICAL CONSULTANT HELPED WITH PLANNING IN ORDER TO QUIET THE NOISE THAT WOULD NATURALLY MOVE FROM ROOM TO ROOM. PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHUCK CHOI FOR BOSTON HOME MAGAZINE.

 

TUCKED INTO THE ISLAND’S NATURAL LANDSCAPE, THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD PROPERTY IS NEARLY INVISIBLE FROM POINTS FARTHER UP THE SLOPE. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHUCK CHOI FOR BOSTON HOME MAGAZINE.