The Studio
These are aerial views of our cottage complex in Maine. On the left is the design sketched on a satellite image, on the right what it looked like to an osprey mid-way through the construction. In each, the original cottage is at the top, the main addition in the center, and the studio at the bottom. They are golden rectangles linked by sublime triangles; the buildings have lengths and widths proportional to adjacent steps in the Fibonacci series; 13/8, 8/5, 5/3. They form the first three steps in a logarithmic spiral, like that of a nautilus shell.
Emily Muir built our cottage, the Flying Bridge, as a golden rectangle with its deck roughly approximating a sublime triangle. We don't know whether she was aware of the mathematics involved or whether she simply felt that these proportions were aesthetically pleasing; Emily can no longer tell us what she had in mind. We tried to carry forward her aesthetic into the design and construction of the addition. Replicating the shallow one-in-twelve roof, the post-and-beam construction, the wide expanse of windows facing the water, the board-and-batten exterior was the easy part. These are the design elements that the Bridge shares with the other cottages she built along the cove. But building the Bridge as a golden rectangle made it special and that was the element that most prominently guided the design of the additions. What started as her golden rectangle has become a chain of three golden rectangles linked by sublime triangles.