Focusing on rural homes in New England with emphasis on excellent plans, emotionally uplifting spaces, low energy use, tactile and locally sourced materials and a very collaborative process.

 

“Bluetime” is the winter twilight time when I am in my office working hard or going for a snowshoe and the world here in Vermont turns a quiet and luminescent blue before it gets dark. This is an especially focusing and productive time of day for me when I begin my transition from work to family. Bluetime Collaborative represents the evolution of my firm toward a more integrated and holistic approach to design and construction where all collaborators are involved with all aspects of a project from start to finish. The result is a higher quality project with a greater degree of accountability and control for the client, the builder and myself.

The Fern House at the Sugar Bush House - This has been constructed in various locations around the U.S. - plans are available for $300

the Sugar Bush House with Mindel and Morse Builders, winner of a 2021 honor award from the Vermont Chapter of the AIA - photography by Lindsay Selin Published in Dwell+

  • Designing and building a new house in Vermont is very much about the people involved in this intense and personal act of creation. Vermont has a history of back-to-the-landers coming together to raise the frame for a new house and all the social aspects inherent in that event. The community that comes out of that carries forward through the lives of the people involved and the life of the home as well. (prickly mtn gang reference?)

    This client lived in a more traditional house with outbuildings and gardens but she wanted something smaller and easier to take care of and live in – Something that would take care of her as well. “I felt I needed a plan for how I could live independently for the long-term and still have a home that was something I could manage relatively easily, and that felt special,” she says. She had purchased a 5 acre sugarbush just outside of a small Southern Vermont town that was big enough to have a food co-op, general store, theater, library and restaurants.

    When I first visited the site, I was impressed with how neat it was. It had been managed as a woodlot for the production of timber and maple syrup. The lines and patterns of the trees were very strong. The ground gently rolls with a general tilt toward the East and a seasonal view through the trees of the rising sun and moon. With a layer of snow on the ground the shadows of the trees created a very strong purple rhythm across the snow.

    My initial instinct was to create something simple and humble that would age in place and settle into the wooded landscape. The woodlot where the house lives consists of sugar maples, black locust and a smattering of other trees. The lines and shadows were all very vertical and visually striking so I thought I could use that to create a dialogue between the house and the forest. This shows up most obviously in the vertical siding with “fins” that provide strong shadows that change throughout the day and seasons.

    We live in an area with a wealth of forests and we like to use these resources wherever possible. I had been experimenting with how I can use local wood from local mills for years and realized that this project might represent an opportunity to explore this hyper-local aspect more fully than ever before.

    This house is sheathed with locally harvested pine boards. The carport and porch are framed with hemlock lumber harvested and milled locally. The porch decking is black locust from the site. The siding is local hemlock which will gradually turn gray. The sugar maple windowsills, black cherry stair treads and locust decking all came from the property as well. The flooring is maple from the site along with Vermont slate.

    The interior is an exploration of how to live in concert with the daily changes of the environment outside the windows while supporting the changing physical and emotional needs of the person or people living within.

    Windows and doors are not just for connecting to the outdoors. They are about the changing patterns of light and how that plays with the interior. They are about opening up to the sounds of the forest and closing tightly to protect from a raging winter storm. They are about highlighting selective vignettes of the surrounding forest. They are about letting breezes through on a warm summer night.

    Each window and window arrangement is carefully tuned to create a relationship with the outside and explore how light comes in (or shines out). The Southeast corner windows are a way to open up to the outside especially when sunshine is in short supply or the weather is particularly interesting. The owner says one of her favorite features of the finished product is the way the windows are placed specifically to frame elements of the natural world outside. “Each season brings dramatic change in the views but always there are the shadows of the trees on the grass or snow” she says. “I think of it as a sanctuary that brings the outdoor world inside.”

    The Inglenook provides a place to cozy up to the wood stove on a dark winter night when the wind is howling. The loft bedroom is an aerie up in the trees with summer breezes flowing through and the rising moon shining in. The downstairs library is a private and cozy space with an intimate and curated view which can be repurposed as a bedroom for one floor accessible living.

    Beyond the aesthetics of the house, it boasts a heavy focus on sustainability. The home is certified with the Passive House Institute US. With an eye toward a smaller and perhaps even carbon negative footprint, the builder bought reused foam for the foundation, used rough board for sheathing rather than oriented strand board or plywood, used local hemlock siding material and used low embodied energy/carbon material (cellulose) for insulation.

    Builder - Mindel and Morse Builders

    Sawyer - Best Wood Custom Sawing

    PHIUS Consulting - Linnean Solutions with Efficiency Vermont

    Mechanical - ARC Mechanical

    Stair Fabrication - Flywheel Industrial Arts

    Cabinetry - Avalon Woodwork

    Lighting - Brilliant Lighting

    Zola Windows

    Wärm Form foundation system

full house view from the East side

Non Pro Photos of the recently completed Rooms with a View - a “Carpenter Modern” project with Mindel and Morse Builders click for more.

modern cabinetry plywood kitchen

Renovation of a riverfront cabin with Mindel and Morse Builders. Click on the image to open their website in a new window with more photos.

modern dining area in Farmhouse Modern

Farmhouse Modern

Construction Log - Sugar Bush House

Sugar Bush House - a Passive House in Vermont

Stratton - high performance ski home

Stratton - high performance ski home

PVR - Historic Brattleboro home

PVR - Historic Brattleboro home

Pinewoods Dance camp - assorted projects

Pinewoods Dance camp - assorted projects

Higley - Funky Mod!

Higley - Funky Mod!

Press and Video

Press and Video

Projects with David Powell, builder

Projects with David Powell, builder

Exhale

Exhale

Renovated barn on a dirt road in the hills of Southern Vermont

Renovated barn on a dirt road in the hills of Southern Vermont

Personal Projects - Barn and Fern House

Personal Projects - Barn and Fern House

Whole House renovation of a simple cape in Brattleboro

Whole House renovation of a simple cape in Brattleboro

houses...lots and lots

houses...lots and lots

Stone Library

Stone Library

Renderings and unbuilt work

Renderings and unbuilt work

Southern Vermont Traditionaland yet very high performance.

Southern Vermont Traditional

and yet very high performance.

Heaven - early career traditional house

Heaven - early career traditional house

Perry Road - Owner build

Perry Road - Owner build

 
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On the Boards and Under Construction

Collaborators

Builders, product suppliers and specialists with whom I work with and recommend.

 
 

 

 

Contact 

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Robert Swinburne

820 Thomas Hill Road

Brattleboro, VT 05301

802 451-9764

bob@bluetimecollaborative.com