Two hours. That was the maximum time a Detroit-area homeowner looking for a getaway was willing to drive when she started hunting for the perfect place to make her escape. “I took a compass and literally drew a two-hour circle on a map,” she reports. “I really wanted a place with a country feel, somewhere not too fancy.”
She also wanted a place that would serve as both a private retreat and a larger family compound. She eventually found the perfect property on Baw Beese Lake in Hillsdale. It was a steep, empty lot “where you could see water but had a lot of trees,” she says, adding that it “felt woodsy and watery at the same time.”
Once she had the lot, she started surfing Pinterest for ideas and “poking about online,” eventually discovering architect David Iannuzzi of Disbrow Iannuzzi in Ferndale. “I really liked his style,” she remembers. She envisioned a place with a look she calls “Scandi Modern” — it would function when her whole family was gathered and when she was alone, with an open-concept common area where everyone could be together but also find privacy when they wanted it. “I wanted it to be as clean and simple as possible,” she explains, adding, “in my head, it was a little brown monopoly house.”
Iannuzzi was able to translate the homeowner’s directive into a clean-lined yet comfortable 4,300-square-foot home that includes four bedrooms and a loft/mezzanine. The innovative architectural plan was designed as a multigenerational vacation retreat with buildings that are joined but can also function independently, so the homeowner can spend time at the retreat alone if she chooses and not have to open (or heat) the entire house. “David figured it all out,” she says.
Iannuzzi says his team starts by “asking a million questions” before distilling a client’s wants and needs into a “white glove” design. “The goal is to give clients one-of-a-kind service and a result that’s truly unique,” he says.
Priorities for this house included a generational approach, which allows for accessibility and aging in place, as well as an environmentally sensitive footprint that lives lightly on the land and is healthy for its inhabitants. Sited to make minimal impact and constructed to have a minimal carbon footprint, the home includes concrete floors with hydronic radiant heat; non-toxic, high-performance wool insulation that manages moisture and regulates temperature; and Japanese Shou Sugi Ban (referred to in the West as burnt timber cladding) siding, with a steel roof and high-performance windows.
The result is a low-maintenance, healthy building with improved indoor air quality, Iannuzzi says. “By investing in the building envelope, we’re ensuring her family will have a healthy environment for years to come,” he says. “Environmentalism really is about durability.”
The team also included Martin Clarke, of Giraffe Design-Build. The project, which started in 2021, was slowed down by the pandemic. Construction began in the fall of 2022, and the homeowner moved in March of 2024. “Custom homes just take a while,” Iannuzzi explains, adding, “a year to two years is pretty standard.”
The homeowner enjoys the house year-round and says the results were worth waiting for. She likes all seasons, but says fall, with its vibrant colors and overall quiet, is her favorite. The getaway has been everything she hoped for and more — a real respite from both the city and the world. “You get the most peaceful feeling when you get there,” she says, adding that she enjoys it alone and with her family equally. “When you’re together at the cottage it has a whole different feel,” she says. “You don’t have to do anything except be together to be happy.”
More information: di.studio
|
|
|
