PLAYFUL DESIGN

POLHEMUS SAVERY DASILVA CREATES A SHINGLE-STYLE HOME BY THE SEA.

-  NANCY A. RUHLING

On the Osterville, Massachusetts, waterfront, surrounded by dunes and wetlands, stands Windswept, a new-construction summer residence whose sinuous Shingle-style design is a subtle salute to its seaside setting.

Gaze at the bell-shaped curve of its rooftop and what do you see? Is it a whale? A seagull? A manta ray? A wave? An ocean current?

John DaSilva, FAIA, didn’t have a particular nautical image in mind when he designed the house, and he really loves the idea that its true beauty lies in the eye of each beholder.

“Multiple readings enrich the architecture,” says DaSilva, design principal of Cape Cod–based Polhemus Savery DaSilva (PSD), a fully integrated architecture and construction firm. “Different readings can come from different people.”

Windswept, which gets its name from the beautiful ocean breezes that whisper seductively in its ears, was designed and built for a couple who have a profound love for traditional architecture.

“They requested a new house to replace the marginally functional non-historic house that had been on their property,” says DaSilva, adding that an existing guesthouse was retained and slightly renovated. “They also sought a somewhat formal character to contain a lifetime of collections of traditional furniture, artwork and antiques—but a formality mitigated by the need to also be a comfortable beach house for family togetherness and fun.”

 Windswept, whose dramatic bell-shaped curved roof is clad with red cedar shingles and whose sidewalls are covered in Alaskan yellow cedar, references the neighborhood’s architecture and that of classic 19th- and early 20th-century New England seaside resorts.