"Malibu Modern" Oceanfront Home

Bringing Malibu Modern to Maine

A California client falling in love with the idea of the Maine coast but focused on relocating some nostalgia on their roots; a challenge for a harsh 4 season climate that encourages thermal mass and minimal glazing.

Sand beaches were replaced by a rocky coastline.  Blistering summer head was replaced by warm breezes.  Temperate winters were replaced by icy coastal storms.  For this client, the trade-offs were more than just climate.  The wanted a simpler, more family-focused lifestyle where they could raise a family and get back to what matters.  That story is all-too-common for those out-of-staters looking to relocate and build their home in Maine.

A Design Inspired by the Landscape but Formed by the Climate

There was an asymmetrical pasture of wildflowers and timothy grasses ringed by the rubble of old field stone walls, and a broad seaview that explained immediately why they had bought it.

Views in Maine come with a reckoning. This one faced northwest, straight into the prevailing winter wind — the direction where you keep glass to a minimum and push wall insulation as high as it will go. The client wanted that view in full, through large expanses of glass. Built that way the house would have lost heat continuously and gained almost none, because the solar side would have been at its back.

Three Volumes Instead of One

The answer came from what was already on the site. The stone walls had broken down into scattered rubble, and that decentralization suggested a building made of separate pieces rather than a single mass — three volumes that could each be turned and placed independently to meet the microclimate on their own terms. A monolithic form would have had to be carved away to achieve the same thing, and carving was not the language the client had in mind.

Turning the House Toward the Sun

The client gave ground where it mattered. Glass went south for solar gain. High-R walls went north against the wind. The original favorite view was teased rather than framed, and over the course of the design the client found they preferred what the south gave them. The garage was positioned to break the wind off the dooryard.

From there the building asked for more. Solar panels, thermal mass and ground-source heat pump technology entered the conversation and the house moved toward Net Zero — not a goal set at the outset but the logical end of decisions the site had already forced.

Built for Exposure

This is a design for open ground. Unobstructed wind, no shelter from neighbors or trees, weather arriving off an unbroken horizon, and an owner who wants glass anyway. Those are the conditions on a Maine coastal site, and they are the conditions this house was solved for — envelope first, orientation second, glass placed where it pays rather than where the first sketch wanted it. A house designed to hold its temperature on an exposed site holds it anywhere.

The Program

Four bedrooms. An open kitchen, living and dining zone. A three-car garage and a wood shop. A double-flue stone fireplace. A rooftop patio with a vegetable garden and a hot tub.

And the things that make a house belong to particular people. He wanted a bat cave — not a man cave, a bat cave, with secret passageways and hidden doors, out of a long attachment to Bruce Wayne. She played bass and had worked as a professional chef, so she wanted a soundproof studio and a kitchen built to a chef’s standard.

Unbuilt, and Available

Then the pandemic arrived, the project was shelved, and the client moved away. What remains is a complete set of drawings for a house that was never built, and it is still some of the best work this office has produced. It is waiting for the right site and the right owner to put their own spin on it.