Harmony of Light & Space

Polhemus Savery DaSilva design and build a unique coastal home for a Chatham Family that flows inside and out.

Photo by Brian Vanden Brink

A family with three school-age children wanted to build a new home not far from Chatham’s Lighthouse Beach. They knew they wanted accessible open living spaces with easy connections between outside and inside spaces, but they were unsure how to express their vision. They turned to the well-known Chatham firm of Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders (PSD) to articulate the reality of their dream house.

“The homeowners didn’t start with a vision that was definable,” says John DaSilva, AIA, PSD’s design principal. “They had images of various elements and a wish for casual, relaxed family living. It was our job to come up with an architectural solution that matched their inner vision—even if they couldn’t exactly articulate what they wanted at the outset.”

DaSilva explains that PSD chose to create a home that is distinctive and meets the needs of a growing family, yet is well integrated with the surrounding neighborhood. “The neighborhood is a mixture of newer Shingle style homes, older summer cottages, and mid-century Capes and contemporaries,” says DaSilva. “We felt an appropriate character for the house was somewhere between the first two—not as grand and formal as some of the Shingle style homes, but not as diminutive and seasonal as the summer cottages.”

PSD is well known for designing and building homes with distinctive, highly original details that give each house notable character and charm. Sensitive integration of interior and exterior spaces—particularly in picturesque Cape Cod surroundings—is also a cornerstone of PSD’s design/build philosophy.