The Country Retreat is designed as a vacation home for a family of four in the Adirondack region of New York. The family desires a space to escape the city and enjoy the outdoors year-round. 

The house is situated on the steepest part of the site allowing for the surrounding, more hospitable, areas to be utilized for outdoor activities.  The home is designed to be environmentally friendly. It turns it's heavy stone back towards the cold northern wind, while opening up its southern exposure for natural light and heat.  The footprint is kept as small as possible, while giving the family multiple spaces in the building to escape each other as well as the city.

The unifying element of the house is the northern stone wall. This becomes an active part of the living system.  Storage elements are pushed into the wall as needed and certain points are punched through to create a visual and physical connection for the entrance.

The design is kept simple to allow the surrounding land to become the defining characteristic of the home.