Our project Longhouse centers around the concept of wellbeing. From the beginning of our engagement with owners Annie and Bruce McPheeters, and their son Jeff, it was clear that wellbeing would be everyone’s core goal for the project. We were delighted to have our efforts recognized in 2023 with the receipt of an AIA Minnesota Honor Awards Commendation for Excellence in Design for Wellbeing.
But how does architecture embody wellbeing? And how do we build a process to foster its development? At its simplest, wellbeing begins with engagement with clients and their goals, an investigation of site and place, and an engagement with nature, light, movement, sensory experience, and delight. It comes with a desire to connect mind and body with the tangible natural world around us.
As a bit of background, Longhouse is one of three cabins, two built, and one soon to be built, situated on 140 acres of former farm land in rural western Wisconsin. The cabins belong to Nordlys Lodging Company and are available year-round as getaway rentals.
At the core of Nordlys’ mission is creating a place for rejuvenation, recreation and environmental connection. Though Nordlys is open to everyone as an escape destination, it is frequently chosen by those in need of a powerful dose of nature to help in their personal recovery journeys, whether as a respite from hectic life, or as a location that can truly provide a recuperative environment for healing.
ENGAGING CLIENTS IN A COLLABORATIVE PROCESS
My process for working with Bruce, Annie and Jeff began with a walk in the woods. Spending time with a client on their land, walking, talking about their aspirations, and getting a feel for what connects them to their chosen place is what helps me as a designer understand the literal “lay of the land”.
We made several trips together over a period of a few weeks to gauge how best to site a handful of cabins. Thinking about different experiences, so that each cabin could have a unique feel, a unique viewscape, and unique connection to the landscape. All without overwhelming the entire site, and leaving the majority of it open to exploration, trails, seclusion, and habitat.
Longhouse was the second cabin, coming on the heels of Metal Lark, a single bedroom, two-story tower overlooking a meadow and the lake beyond.
Longhouse in contrast is more secluded, set into an opening in the woods along the lakeshore bluff. It is arrayed on one level and has a more grounded presence. The client wanted the cabin to allow for accessibility, and have two bedrooms: giving the option for someone needing a fulltime caregiver to have separate bathroom and sleeping space.
The secluded, wooded site for Longhouse allowed for a generous use of glass; providing abundant daylight and an immersive connection with nature.
CONNECTION TO LIGHT AND VIEW
Longhouse stretches east to west along the lake bluff; an ideal orientation for passive solar and for daylight. Expansive floor to ceiling windows allow light and views to penetrate the building, while imparting the sense of floating in the tree canopy.
The plan of the building is given a slight bend, with two main volumes interconnecting at the entry point. This interplay of volumes and position is a nod to a wrinkle in the shoreline and a small ravine in the hillside.
VISUAL ENGAGEMENT WITH SITE AND NATURE
A key benefit of this bend in the plan is the opportunity to provide multiple rooms with corner windows, allowing for panoramic vistas that uniquely engage each space with the site.
Additionally, the bend helps protect a pair of large oak trees along the bluff edge and creates a dialogue between eaves, beams and boughs.
MOVEMENT AND MIGRATION
Opposite this glassy side of Longhouse, the entry side had thick walls with smaller, deeply set windows. Privacy is maintained, and a strong edge carries the eye along a boardwalk leading to a separate covered outdoor pavilion.
We use the architecture as an invitation to move and engage the site, to explore beyond interior space, and to participate in a kind of choreography.
DIRECT EXPERIENCE OF NATURE
The pavilion is a migratory space offering opportunity to modulate comfort and experience
through changes in temperature and exposure to elements. The space is flexible given it is open to the elements on two sides but is protected on the other two, allowing it to at times shield from rain, sun, wind and bugs, but also provide daylight and fresh air. It provides flexibility as a birding spot, yoga platform, getaway space and an endless variety of relaxing pursuits, all while being semi-sheltered outdoors.
THERMAL COMFORT
No sense of wellbeing is quite complete without thermal comfort whether that is being warm and cozy in the winter, or cool and calm in the summer. While the pavilion offers sheltered outdoor opportunity, the main building of course offers its own thermal comforts. To accomplish this thermal comfort may come from the mechanical heating or cooling systems, but what is equally important are the many passive design strategies that minimize the need for these mechanics. Some of these include:
- Orienting the building to the south to get passive solar heat in the wintertime.
- Providing broad overhangs, along with deciduous tree cover provide shade in the summer.
- Bringing in fresh air through operable windows, and locating windows on opposite sides to promote cross-ventilation and passive cooling.
- Siting on the bluff overlooking the lake provides micro-climate cooling, while also taking advantage of on-shore air breezes.
- Visually connecting to views of water and trees to provide psychological cooling effect.
NOURISHMENT
For our client, an important aspect in planning Longhouse was creating space for nourishment. Relating literally to food, we created an efficient and functional kitchen space utilizing high quality appliances, and appointed with chef grade cookware and utensils, with the goal to encourage guests to socialize and connect through shared meals. Nordlys has also developed relationships with neighboring organic farms, and a nearby organic grocery coop to provide access to fresh and sustainable food for guests.
Beyond just food, Nordlys encourages nourishment of the body by providing recreation amenities for healthy activities on site including: hiking trails, canoeing, snowshoeing, skiing, and biking, as well as outdoor wood-fired saunas and soaking tubs.
DEVELOP SENSORY EXPERIENCES
One of the things that architecture can do really well is to help people escape from the stresses of life and tap into natural sensory experiences
As echoed in this quote from ― Juhani Pallasmaa, in his book The Eyes of the Skin:
“The inhumanity of contemporary architecture and cities can be understood as the consequence of the neglect of the body and the senses, and an imbalance in our sensory system.”
At Longhouse this idea of rebalancing a sensory system comes in the form of connection to daylight, to native flora, to sounds of nature, to the smell of the meadows and woods: In essence creating a more encompassing environment that activates one’s senses. This is encouraged through the feel and sound of materials underfoot such as mowed prairie grass trails, wooden boardwalks, or stone tile floors. Or through the touch of natural surfaces such as wood paneling and rusted metal siding.
Pallasma expresses this by noting: “Natural materials express their age, as well as the story of their origins and their history of human use. All matter exists in the continuum of time; the patina of wear adds the enriching experience of time to the materials of construction”
UTILIZE BUILDINGS TO TEACH AND DELIGHT
Visual detail makes architecture tangible and comprehensible. For me this comes in showing how the building stands up, by exposing columns, beams and connections. Or by carrying the weight of the roof on columns and beams rather than on a load bearing wall, so that the windows are free to flow sweepingly across the façade.
I also think about how a building meets the ground. How the weight of a structure is expressed with a clear pathway from roof to wall, or beam, or column, to the foundation and ultimately to the ground. Seeing the way gravity works on buildings, I believe, gives us a more psychologically grounded sense of well-being.
I like to extend roof overhangs beyond the exterior walls to create clear protection from the elements like the brim of a hat. Overhangs also act as a gestural reach out into nature, and an acceptance of nature coming into each space. I work to develop floor plans that provide views back and forth between the spaces of habitation. This invites exploration, movement, connection, and a deeper understanding site, context and place.
DEFINING WELLBEING
While the definition of true wellbeing will be different for every individual, we have the ability as architects to work with our clients to design spaces, landscapes and environments that are conducive to fostering the sense of wellbeing in all of us. The process requires listening, thoughtfulness and an openness to discovery. It’s why we often describe architecture as a journey we take with our clients.