This house sited above Cooks Bluff takes its shape from the constellation Scorpius, a reference to James Cook’s observation of the transit of Mercury from the bay below in 1769. But even to a visitor unaware of the story woven into the house’s apparently eccentric plan, the interior is anything but chaotic. Acute and obtuse angles are well handled to suit the spatial function, and the uncompromising shielding wall that turns its back to the sou’westers anchors the forms stretching to the north and encloses the sheltered bays between. A simple, elemental palette is dominated by ply and concrete.