E
very scientific experiment begins with a question, an attempt to cull answers from the unknown. Hypotheses are made, constraints considered, tests of validity run—and at any time, unexpected factors can alter the outcome for surprising results. • When it came to designing a home for two scientists and their children on an environmentally sensitive spot in a Boston suburb, architect Alan Joslin was faced with a question: can a 10,000-square-foot house made of stone, wood, metal and glass sit lightly on the landscape? • During the two-year design process, Joslin worked closely with the homeowners to craft a manmade structure that pays homage to Mother Nature. • The owners’ deep love of the outdoors, their vast collection of Chinese scholar rocks, a penchant for contemporary aesthetics and the need for the house to be equally suited to family life and formal entertaining all influenced the design. The site itself presented its share of challenges: a stone wall, a grove of ornamental trees, a wooden Chinese pavilion and a 100-foot-tall Cedar of Lebanon would all need to be preserved and integrated with the new structure. • The architect, a principal at Cambridge, Massachusetts–based Epstein Joslin Architects, took his design cues from the landscape features. The existing stone wall became the front elevation with the house set behind it and low to the ground. Roof lines play off the surrounding topography; one of the primary long slopes of the roof runs parallel to the front wall of the property, and Joslin
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