Why the best homes bring you closer to nature

By Jacob Kirst

President & Visionary, Lagois Design·Build·Renovate

The storm arrived before the morning did.

Rain fell with a rhythm so steady it seemed to become part of the silence. Thunder rolled across the lake with a force you could feel before you heard it. Lightning danced across the sky, revealing the shoreline for only a heartbeat before surrendering it once again to darkness.

Somewhere beyond the trees, the loons answered. It was still pitch black.

I found myself sitting beneath the porch roof, coffee in hand, just listening and watching. I was completely present.

And I realized there was absolutely nowhere else I’d rather be.

I was experiencing the storm. Although I was protected from the rain, I was completely immersed in everything else. I could feel the cool air and the changing wind and the deep echo of thunder rolling across the water.

Had there been no porch, I would have watched the storm through a window. It would have been something I’d admire from a distance, and I’d wait for it to pass. Instead, I was almost within it, and it was exhilarating.

As dawn slowly arrived, the storm drifted further across the lake. The thunder became more distant. The rain softened. The loons continued calling.

Nothing about the landscape had really changed. Yet something inside me had.

The places that have shaped my life have been the ones that invited me to remain – to listen, to watch, to breathe.

The porch hadn’t created the storm, of course. The storm had created the moment. The porch simply made it possible for me to remain there long enough to experience it.

That may be one of the deepest responsibilities of thoughtful architecture. We can’t manufacture meaning, but we can create the special places where meaningful moments can happen.

When I think of this, I wonder if we’ve misunderstood the meaning of shelter. We tend to think of it as protection, of four walls and a roof, as something that keeps the world outside.

And yet the moments that have stayed with me most have rarely happened because I was separated from the world. They happened because I felt deeply connected to it.

I love watching the first snowfall from my chair beside a warm fire, fishing with my little son, Dawson, in the morning mist… and listening to rain on the porch roof.

When I experience things like that thunderstorm, I am reminded how small we really are.

Perhaps shelter, rather than separating us from nature, should help us to remain part of it.

Homes, like the world outside them, often shape the rhythm of our lives. They influence whether mornings begin with calm or chaos. They determine whether a family naturally gathers or slowly drifts apart.

Whether we notice the changing seasons or forget to look outside altogether, whether we experience the landscape or merely look at it, our homes should provide us with the kind of life we hope to lead.

It is our job to design beautiful, enduring homes, but it’s also our responsibility to create places where life unfolds naturally. A screened porch, for example, allows us to stay outside while the rain falls. A kitchen welcomes us to gather. A window catches the first light of morning.

These are design decisions for sure, but they’re also invitations: to pause, to gather, to experience, to belong. This kind of thoughtful architecture creates places where special moments can happen.

Great architecture embraces nature rather than trying to conquer it. The same way the forest belongs to the landscape, the shoreline meets the water, and the seasons arrive on time, the most enduring architecture doesn’t dominate a place but is part of it.

Years from now, someone else will sit in this same place. Maybe they, too, will listen to rain falling across the lake. They might never know who imagined the porch or who built it. And maybe that’s exactly as it should be. Maybe this porch should endure not just because of its materials or its well-designed roofline but because it has once again become part of someone’s life.

Perfecting the Art of Living® means creating places that help people live the way they want to, places where one has every opportunity to become their fullest and happiest, generation after generation.

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