SOHN RESIDENCE

One way to create a sense of place is to break a large house into a series of smaller components. Architects often liken the resulting components to a "village," since the overall effect resembles a duster of individual dwellings. Hugh Newell Jacobsen, a master of such assemblages, used that technique in the playful Sohn residence overlooking Lake Simcoe in southern Ontario.

Whereas a conventional house has a front, a back, and two sides, the Sohn residence is variegated, containing a series of spaces between segments, making the dwelling less of a monolith and more of a "place." The 1 1/2story components have a diminutive scale, like that of cabins in a camp. Because each unit shares the same spare esthetic and has the same pristine white on its exterior, they read as a unified group; small variations such as differing window sizes and non-uniform chimney locations force the eye to go back and forth, measuring and comparing. This engagement with the viewer is part of the fascination of a picturesque house.

The Sohn house is traditional in its use of shapes such as gabled roofs and prominent chimneys and in its choice of divided-light windows, but it is undeniably modern in its abstraction and in its severe detailing. Ornament is almost entirely absent. Chimneys are clad in tongue-and-groove clear cedar—very smooth. On the interior, the variety of spaces reinforces the sense of place even while the pervasive whiteness, the openness to the landscape, and the abundance of sunlight mark this as a truly modern design.