Nate and Lauren Morgan are aware that they’re living in an “aquarium in the middle of the woods,” as they call it. But sometimes they forget just how unique their all-glass house in Chilmark really is. 

Last summer, the couple hosted a sixth birthday party for their daughter, and their living arrangement served as both the venue and main conversation piece. When the parents arrived and discovered they could see through the Morgans’ home, they were curious. When the glass walls lifted up, effectively turning the living room into an alfresco area, they were flabbergasted.

“Either they think it’s very interesting, or they think we’re crazy,” Nate said.

Lauren, an interior designer, and Nate, an architect, together make up Morgan Studio, a multi-disciplinary design studio that conceptualizes and builds bespoke homes for clients across Martha’s Vineyard. They moved to the Island in 2009 after meeting in art school, and in 2019 they bought a ten-acre parcel in Chilmark with a vision: they would design – and raise their children in – a house with no opaque exterior walls.

Nate, who grew up visiting the Vineyard in the summer, had long known about its natural beauty. Lauren, on the other hand, moved to the Island sight unseen. But after nearly a decade living here, they decided to go all in on bringing the outside, inside – and taking that idea to an architectural extreme.

“We love the idea of raising our kids in a house where we’re immersed and aware of what’s going on outside,” Nate said. “It was an interesting kind of challenge.”

Instead of exterior walls, the house has glass doors and large windows, supported by steel. Chilmark’s dense woodlands and old stone walls are as much a part of the house’s interior design as its couches and countertops. It’s about as literal as immersion in Vineyard life can get. “It’s definitely not traditional,” Lauren said.

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In 1949, the architect Philip Johnson began building his signature work, “Glass House,” in New Canaan, Connecticut. Flat-roofed with windows for walls, its industrial austerity is considered foundational to the modernist architecture movement of the twentieth century. But the idea of a house made of glass – and that idea’s rhetorical value – has held a place in the public consciousness for much longer. The adage that “those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” is traceable to a Chaucer poem from 1385; today, the glass house endures as a symbol of vulnerability, exposure, and even the pitfalls of public critique.

For the Morgans, however, the desire for a glass house was about something else. They hoped the design would expose their children – ages six and four, and a newborn – to the rhythms and intricacies of the natural world. “Obviously, in the summer, it’s beautiful,” Nate said. “At dawn and dusk, you see the deer and the rabbits.”

With their shared goal in mind, designing the home was an intensely collaborative process. Building it took about a year and a half, beginning in 2019. “We were wearing a lot of hats,” Nate said. “We were clients, interior designers, architectural designers, [and] general contractors.”

The house is inspired by the giants of mid-century modernism, including Johnson, whose structure directly influenced the Morgans’ design. But despite the home’s modern look, the Morgans wanted it to feel like the Vineyard.

The home’s exterior walls are a window and door package created by Will Parry of Parry Windows & Doors in Chilmark. Parry also made the mullions, which divide the panes of glass, from sustainably harvested eucalyptus wood. Since Will Parry’s death in 2024, the business has been under the care of his son Cameron, but the older Parry was a longtime collaborator and friend of the Morgans. The window maker’s ribbing even helped inspire the house’s design.

“Will would always give me a hard time about, ‘You need to put your walls up so I can come in and put in my windows,’” Nate recalled. “So I told him, ‘One day, I’m going to build a house where there are no walls, and you’re the only one I have to call.’”

The glass panels that enclose the main kitchen, dining, and living area are motorized and can be raised with the press of a button, clearing away what little barrier already exists between the home’s interior and the outdoors. When the weather is warm, the feature brings magic to dinner parties and their children’s birthday parties. 

“It gives us the outside-inside feel we love,” Nate said.

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Even when the doors and windows are closed, the kitchen and living area promote open-concept living. The Morgans opted for an airy color palette to match. Pale wood kitchen cabinets accompany a countertop, island, and backsplash in Vermont Danby marble, creamy white with striking gray veins. It’s where the family entertains and where the kids chant for their mother’s chicken soup. “The kitchen is definitely the center of the house,” Lauren said.

The dining area is anchored by a “live edge” dining room table that maintains the natural contours of the tree trunk from which it came, including where the trunk branches off into two fat limbs. Natural cracks in the wood are held together with epoxy and butterfly bandage–shaped wooden inlays.

After noticing the unique slab of wood in a collaborator’s shop and buying it at cost, Nate enlisted the help of Collins Heavener of Marshall Farm Wood-Works on Chappaquiddick to transform it into a surprise gift for Lauren: a table with a seat for each of them at the head.

“I told him, when Lauren and I would have couples over for dinner, we always sat at opposite ends of the table, and it was kind of sad because we couldn’t sit next to each other,” Nate said. “The idea was that Lauren and I would sit at the end of the table together.”

More and more, the couple find themselves relinquishing those coveted seats to their kids. They say the table has become a meaningful teacher about the connection between the natural world and the items their family uses every day. “The kids understand,” said Lauren, placing a hand on the tabletop. “They always go, ‘This is a tree, right?’”

The primary bedroom, set apart from the kitchen-dining space with a flex room, features an oak wardrobe by John Thayer Cabinetmakers in Vineyard Haven. Its endcap location in the house lends it cozy privacy, as do blackout curtains, helpful for sleeping in when the sun comes up. One of the room’s more surprising features is what Nate called a “very European” soaking tub, positioned overlooking the backyard. 

The attached bathroom features a double-sink vanity in Nero Marquina marble, situated so that the Morgans get a full view of their backyard when brushing their teeth. The mirrors are flush to the support columns in the bathroom and fold out when needed so they don’t block the view. These mirrors, said the Morgans, embody the kind of creative thinking necessary when designing a house that effectively has no walls. 

“You don’t realize how much wall space is in a normal house, and when you don’t have that, everything has to basically go on the interior,” Nate said.

Tucked away opposite the vanity are the water closet and shower. The terrazzo tile shower features a skylight, which brings light in when it’s sunny and a spectacular view when it’s raining. “It’s kind of poetic,” Nate laughed.

There is something poetic, indeed, about the radical embrace of the elements required to live in a house with as few opaque surfaces as possible. The weather becomes as much a part of interior design as Lauren’s handpicked custom furnishings and décor.

To complement the surroundings, Lauren has outfitted the house with what she calls “human touches” – pillows, blankets, and rugs in textiles both dynamic and inviting. “Textile and color plays into everything I do, even if it’s really organic, subdued color,” she said. “I’m switching out the pillows all the time, sewing things myself.”

Another consideration is heating and cooling. Because heat from sunlight is magnified by glass, the house can easily overheat on sunny days. To combat the issue, the Morgans installed two different climate control systems: radiant tubes embedded in the floor that heat from below, and air conditioning that flows down from the ceiling. The dual systems take cues from sensors outside, working in tandem to keep the house at the desired temperature.

Even the land itself required some coaxing to be habitable. When the Morgans first dug up the earth to lay down the house’s foundation, they found that the ground was so filled with clay that it created a “bathtub” effect that filled the hole with water.

After digging up the clay, they called Island potter Micah Thanhauser of Merry Farm Pottery in West Tisbury to see if he was interested in taking it. Thanhauser not only happily obliged but used his newfound material to return the favor. “Six months later, he came back to us with a whole set of mugs,” Nate said.

Challenges with the house’s foundation notwithstanding, the Morgans said the foundation of their marriage and professional partnership helps them work as an effective team. 

“There’s an advantage to both designers sitting at the same table in the same office,” Nate said. “We’re already kind of on the same page. There’s no ego, no butting heads.”

“If we fight about something, it’s up front, right away,” Lauren added. 

Now that the Morgans have lived in the house for several years, they’re deciding where to take the project next. They’re planning an addition to accommodate their growing family and dreaming up potential configurations – other bedrooms, a garage, a workspace where their kids can draw on the walls. New ideas pose new challenges, but it’s nothing the Morgans can’t handle. In their quest to raise their children in a house with as few boundaries as possible, they’ve pushed the boundaries of design.

“It was an exploration,” Nate said. “We really enjoyed being able to spread our wings.” 

THE TEAM

Architect: Morgan Studio
General Contractor: Morgan Studio
Interior Design: Morgan Studio
Landscaping: Contemporary Landscapes
Exterior Walls + Windows: Parry Windows & Doors