Sharp House

Bar Harbor

This Northern Maine cabin was designed for friend and landscape designer Don Sharp to follow the principles of self-reliance. Located on a small island accessible only by dinghy this spherical house on an inland lake is closer to a boat in style and construction than a house. The house, sitting atop a small wooded island, is not fixed to the ground. The foundations of the house which is the only piece of the house designed to be constructed on site, is a formed slab which receives the spherical house. No electrical, plumbing, or structural elements connect the house to the specially formed foundation. The weight and shape of the house keep it tightly nestled into the slab. The giant oculus, the one and only window in the house, provides magnificent sun set views, and its lens-shape periphery allows soft light to every interior surface of the house.