The homeowners had a unique agenda for what they wanted in their new home. They had been living in an ornate, immaculately decorated 18th century historic mansion on a large 40 acre property in Mansfield, MA. They decided they wanted to make a dramatic post-retirement change by simplifying and downsizing their lives. Embracing a minimalist, modern, aesthetic in their new living space, they hired Specht Novak Architects to design their new modern 2,000 square foot home. Interestingly, they decided to keep and display the priceless art, antiques and found objects collected over the course of their lives. This presented a unique architectural challenge of how to merge these contradictory aesthetics. Photography by Dror Baldinger.

. The property site was also unique. When selling off most of their original 40 acre estate, they kept a 9.75 acre parcel on which to build the new home. It was largely a fallow agricultural parcel fringed by large old-growth trees. The property site was a huge open field serving as a blank canvas for anything Specht Architects proposed.
?The architectural solution started with the approach sequence. From the main road the property is entered through a grove of large trees and after cresting a gentle rise in the land, a pastoral field opens up before you,? says Scott Specht, founding principal, Specht Novak. ?We decided to make the most of this procession by locating the house at the far end of the field, as d...