2025 Award Winner - DIY/nonprofessional design/build and sustainable landscape

ART STUDIO WITH INTEGRATED NATIVE LANDSCAPE

Camden, Maine • Completed February 2025

Project Team:

  • Homeowner/Designer/General Contractor/Carpenter: Jonathan Cohen, Jonathan Cohen sized framing for approval by local code enforcement

  • Carpenter (collaborating): Ben Smith

  • Electrical Installation: Hedstrom Electric, Tom Hedstrom

  • Restoration Ecologist: Keystone Native Habitat & Landscape, Amy Thomas

  • Site Work: Donald E. Meklin & Sons, Bruce Meklin

Project Description:

Two passions fulfilled: Create a healthy contemplative place to make art; play a part in restoring a natural world in serious decline.

Architect designs and DIY builds 200SF studio to satisfy his passion for art; builds cutting gardens for his wife’s joy, intentionally seating both within a 2000 sq ft native plant “teaching” garden he designed collaborating with a restoration ecologist/green infrastructure practitioner (GIP).

Challenge: Studio placement on ¼ acre with existing house and saturated site conditions. One location was suitable, given constraints and setbacks. The native gardens are designed around drainage infrastructure and studio. Starting at the back of the property working out was the only feasible construction sequence for foundation placement and equipment access. A stone swale using GI techniques was constructed first. •

  • Foundation: Highly durable, recyclable stainless steel helical piles, minimizing site disturbance, preserving soil integrity, eliminating concrete, and generating no on-site waste.

  • Walls: Nickel-gap pine, sourced (15 miles) from Robbins, recognized for sustainable forestry practices.

  • Floors: Marmoleum 95% natural, biodegradable, recyclable raw materials, with no hazardous emissions.

  • Insulation: Meets/exceeds 2021 IECC for higher intensity residential occupancies.

  • Heating: Plug-in electric eliminating direct use of fossil fuels.

  • Cooling: Passive with strategically located wall openings for natural cross ventilation, ceiling fan, no A/C.

Flora transitions from curated gardens into a wilder preserved native corridor/living privacy fence.

Invasive plants and lawn removed; existing native plants protected reducing expenses, maintaining valuable undisturbed wildlife “edge” habitat, providing privacy.

Native plants prioritized, selected: Local ecotype by Maine County/Keystone, host species/ pollinator, caterpillar, wildlife value/straight native species/genetically diverse seed-grown/ nurseries within 20 miles/organic.

Garden design prioritizes views of nature: boulders, mountains, rivulet, wildlife corridor; minimizing views of neighbors, structures.

Project Metrics:

  • Studio: One room plus vestibule, 220 sq ft.

  • Heating/ventilation systems: Heating: Plug-in electric unit eliminating direct use of fossil fuels. Cooling: Passive with strategically located wall openings for natural cross-ventilation, ceiling fan, no A/C.

  • Approximate R-values: Foundation: R-32, Walls: R-25, Roof: R-52

  • Native Gardens: Phases 1 & 2: 2,000 sq ft.

Highlights from the Judges:

“Excellent use of natural, recyclable and local materials. They did a nice job integrating with existing.”
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