2025 Award of merit - New Build
storybook
Casco, Maine • Completed January 2023
Project Team:
Architect: Jesse Thompson, FAIA, CPHC, Kaplan Thompson Architects
Builder: Katrina Belle, CPHC, Maine Passive House
Structural Engineer: Paul Becker, P.E., SECB, Thornton Tomasetti
Solar: Will Kessler, Garbo Kane Solar
Project Description:
Storybook adds a “low-maintenance, high-delight” guest house to a decades-old camp, providing space and privacy for a growing family.
The building’s form and material palette is inspired by—and at times sourced from—its forested site, embracing predominantly wooden construction methods with a focus on local resources. Locally milled and turned cedar columns support the exterior balconies, parallel to the maples towering alongside the home. The project’s custom interior millwork is fashioned from a mix of site salvaged live-edge hardwoods and birch veneer plywood, with subtle copper accents giving nod to the home’s exterior siding.
Storybook is also the permanent residence for a vast collection of books. As the founder of a non-profit children’s literacy initiative, one family member’s love of storybooks inspired many of the project’s novel details. The bookcase that spans all three stories of the home is the most dramatic expression of this passion. The tower bookshelf forms the spine of the interior staircase that climbs upward around it. A curved bookcase on the lower level even conceals the hidden entry to the primary bedroom suite.
The home was constructed using a Passive House-compliant prefabricated enclosure system. The envelope employs 2x6 wood framing with a continuous air barrier and thick carbon sequestering wood fiber exterior insulation. Rugged fiber cement clads the home, with copper shingles adorning the large, lake-facing bay. These metal shakes are one of the most durable and low maintenance siding options available and will require no maintenance as they naturally patina in the New England climate.
A 10,000 kWh per year rooftop photovoltaic array powers the home, allowing the building to operate entirely free of fossil fuels with a 90.8% reduction from Benchmark EUI. The building can also function off-grid as necessary using a battery back-up.
The panelized, high-performance guesthouse begins a new chapter of lakeside living with the practical and purposeful volumes needed for a comfortable stay.
Project Metrics:
Bedrooms/Bathrooms: 4 BR (bunkroom) / 3 BA
Conditioned living space: 3,384 (GSF)
Heating & cooling: Mitsubishi high efficiency heat pump/AC system
Hot water heating: 80 gal Heat Pump Water Heater Heat Recovery
Ventilation: Zehnder ComfoAir 350 ERV system
R values: R-28 Floors; R-38 Wood Fiber Continuous Insulation Over Dense Packed Cellulose Stud Walls; R-72
Passive House Roof System
Highlights from the Judges:
“This is a stunner. I would love to see the copper shingles as they patina over the years. This home is not only going to last generations, but will only look better as it ages. This is a carpenters dream with all of the built ins and woodwork and the creative use of the library interplaying with the stairs is as unique as it is beautiful. The local cedar columns set at an angle with the balconies must make for an incredible scene. This should be a resilient and low maintenance home that is an exemplar of good design and great execution.”