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This is the second project in a special In Focus series profiling contemporary shingled cottages. The two other featured projects in the series are Hilltop House by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects and Mohegan Trail by Bates Masi + Architects.

The site was tight (only about 5,000 square feet) and the new 1,800-square-foot cottage would sit cheek-by-jowl with a row of houses facing the Pacific Ocean. In designing this one-story residence, Benjamin Waechter, principal of the firm he founded in 2007, looked closely at local materials and building traditions, as well as the setting of sand and seagrass. The resulting structure, with its gently sloped, almost-pyramidal roof, is completely clad in eastern white cedar shingles, including both the roof and rainscreen walls, which Waechter detailed with minimal eaves.

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Inside, a sitting area faces the seagrass and ocean (1), as does a bedroom (2). The kitchen has a framed view of the garden (3). Photos © Pablo Enriquez, click to enlarge.

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In order to enhance the view of the ocean and preserve privacy by blocking unnecessary glimpses of the neighbors next door, Waechter enclosed a rectilinear space in each corner of a square plan. These well-proportioned components contain an office and two bedrooms, plus a pantry and sauna, all pinwheeling around a central space. This is where the architect located the dining hall, under a vaulted ceiling that is topped with a light monitor; a sitting area adjoins it on the western perimeter, facing the ocean, and the kitchen opens to the east, overlooking a garden. “From the center of the house, you have the big view toward the ocean versus the framed view to the garden,” says Waechter. A subtly indirect choreography of moving around the interior spaces, he notes, begins at the entrance, and continues to an opening on the back.

Windows are strategically placed to block views of the neighbors. Photo © Pablo Enriquez

The interior walls, ceiling, and floors are sheathed in white oak planks that create a crisply detailed yet warm enclave. Because of the temperate climate on the north coast of Oregon, the house can depend on passive ventilation for cooling: the light shaft that rises off-center in the dining room ceiling sucks the hot air out. In the cooler months, radiant-floor heating warms the living spaces.

The slightly ascending hipped roof confers a certain modesty of scale, yet the rippling effect of the cedar shingles on the exterior and the crispness of the wood paneling and flooring inside give the cottage an unexpected, striking presence.

Image courtesy Waechter Architecture, click to enlarge.

Read about other projects in our “Shingled Out: Contemporary Cottages” series from the September 2025 issue.

• Hilltop Cottage
• Mohegan Trail

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