Big-Small Retreat

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  How do you design a home that can function as a summer lake retreat for three families as well as a cozy retirement home for just one couple? These challenging "programmatic" concerns were the starting point for a home full of creative solutions that make it both comfortable for just a few and yet spacious enough to accomodate fourteen (or more?) for the weekend without anyone feeling cramped. Many of the solutions came through overlapping areas so space can be borrowed from a hallway to the bedroom to make a bump-out into a full dining room (as seen in the photo above). Diagonal views help the rooms to live larger than they really are, and help to connect people to each other as well to the beautiful wooded lake property.