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Project: 21st-Century Cabin,
Highland, MD

Architects: McInturff Architects
Structural Engineers: Neubauer Consulting Engineers
Contractor: Timber Ridge Builders

View through the new bay window into the living area at left, with the kitchen beyond.

Design-oriented magazines, books, and television shows couches or beds or most of the other trappings of modern
typically treat minimalism as a matter of style—an domestic life. They simply wanted the existing space to
arbitrary aesthetic defined by simplicity of form and a work better for their family’s needs.
near-total absence of decoration. Minimalism may also “We’ve probably designed bathrooms bigger than
refer, however, to a broader philosophy based on a this,” said Mark McInturff, FAIA, only half-jokingly,
rejection of physical possessions as sources of meaning “but there’s a real place in my heart for small houses. I
and purpose in one’s life. For those who subscribe to was a sailor when I was a kid, and we always had little
such a philosophy, minimalist design is much more than boats. This house is designed like a little boat.”
an expression of personal taste—it is a framework for Although most projects by his eponymous firm are
calm, uncomplicated living. designed collaboratively, McInturff typically chooses one
So it is for the NASA engineer and cello teacher who or two a year on which he works single-handedly. When
live with their young child in this roughly 1,100-square- the call about the Maryland cabin renovation came in, he
foot house in rural Maryland. When they decided that quickly decided it would be one of those solo endeavors.
their modest, furniture-free cabin needed renovation, The existing house was, according to McInturff,
they had no interest in adding significant space, let alone “chalet-like,” with dark board-and-batten siding and a

LESS IS MORE REWARDING 21