An Unconventional Timber-frame in Bridgewater

A front door made from a slab of Bastogne walnut bisected with glass allows light to pass through. Just behind it, explains homeowner Shannon Young, is an illuminated salt wall. “It looks like it’s on fire!”

Douglas fir, stone harvested from the site, and rough-sawn-wood siding comprise the exterior.

A statement-making bird’s-nest fixture is the “icing on the cake,” Young says.

Because a timber frame absorbs so much light, selecting the right lighting was critical; the goal of incorporating lots of strip and indirect lighting was to see the light but not the source.

A cascading light fixture adds a dose of drama to the helical staircase, which is housed in the stone silo.

Some people stare up to the night sky for other-worldly inspiration. Shannon Young derives the same pleasure simply by contemplating the ceiling in the great room of his Bridgewater house. “I spend a couple of hours a week gazing into this,” he says. “I literally find a new discovery in it every night. The joinery is just so amazing, so perfect, so tight. I get lost in it.”

No ordinary ceiling, this is a work of art and a feat of craftsmanship.

The original idea came to Young when he visited the historic Tabernacle on Martha’s Vineyard; his vision was solidified by a trip to the New Energy Works facility in Farmington, New York. A commercial builder himself, his sights were set on a timber-frame design. “I like to see the function shown—the bones of a building,” he admits. “The function becomes the fashion.” When Young spied the curved beams, he had a thought: “I wanted to see how far we could push this concept of a non-traditional shape: a perfect circle made out of wood in an incredible size.”

With the expertise of New Energy Works architect Ty Allen, the intricately layered, basket-like “circle in a square” concept was born as the central anchor of the house, soaring above an oversized great room. Allen notes that while the space is grand—rising two-plus stories to the top of the clearstory—the shape brings it down to scale. “It’s a tall and interesting space,” he says, “but when you’re in it, you don’t feel overwhelmed by it.”

In fact, the house itself is interesting, with lots of carefully thought-out forms that straddle both the traditional (the Douglas fir framing, the clearstory, the stone silo) and the forward-thinking (the helical staircase, the dramatic lighting, the book-matched slab front door bisected by glass).

“It’s really cool, modern, and funky, but there are still natural elements to the house,” says Allen. “It’s a reflection of the owners—they are fun and interesting.”

And they have imagined a home that inspires contemplation—and invites one to stop, reflect, and, of course, look up.

Project Team

Architecture: Ty Allen, New Energy Works
Builder: Silvermine Development