EAST HAMPTON RESIDENCE
Location: East Hamptons, New York Floor area: Approx, 13,000 sqft
Completion: In Construction
Design Concept: This Hamptons residence, planned as a family retreat, was conceived as a series of indoor, outdoor, and interstitial spaces. Our challenge was to create an emotional “oasis” within a constrained suburban setting. Our goal was to provide enough privacy to foster open plan living, highlighting a focus to nature, without creating a fortress to the street.
Site Strategy: In order to best take advantage of the site’s principal qualities- long length and open sky- we organized the house and gardens along it’s expansive North-South axis. Within the entry gate, we balanced a sequence & variety of interlocking “rooms with views” to encourage both communal activities and periods of quiet repose.
House to Site Strategy: We rooted this house down to the ground plane with framed views and paths, understanding that visual awareness of one’s place in a home increases opportunities for enjoyment. Oversized doors throughout the first floor open to allow for literal indoor-outdoor living. Covered, open air breezeways connect main living areas to the landscape and foster the precious pleasure of living “in-between” house and garden. Spatial complex views created from intersecting paths offer moments of surprise and delight.
Context and Responsibility to Neighbors: To the noisy East street edge we minimized the scale of house mass and removed a long tall “barrier” wall of tall trees. In its place we planted human scale hedges with hidden sound attenuating fencing and occasional feature shade trees which in combination provide a respectful edge. We appropriated existing perimeter landscape elements to blur the property edges where possible at North, South, and West edges so that inhabitants experience a more complex, cohesive landscape.
House Form: The simple traditional gable roof forms provide a timeless backdrop for modern minimal details. We describe this house as “modern vernacular” in style. We consistently and rigorously applied this concept throughout the house creating a single hierarchical language, from the largest roof gesture down to the smallest hand held detail. Vernacular materials such as the silvery gray cedar siding and native bluestone pavers appear typical and familiar from a distance but then individualized and bespoke at an arm’s length. These materials weather gracefully and were chosen for their future aged beauty and minimal required maintenance.
House Program: The programmatic goal for this growing family was to allow for functional flexibility over time. Primary public spaces have overlapping functions, while private spaces have more specific purposes. Main communal spaces, such as the central living space and adjacent South lawn support a wide range of activities and connect the vital kitchen/ dining/ family, & pool zones to each other. Private zones are grouped and individualized, as exemplified within the 1st Floor Guest Wing. Each Bedroom suite has a discreet entry into a secluded, sunny, East-facing morning garden as well as a common West entry into the Shady North afternoon courtyard. Guests are offered options to connect or separate.
Pragmatic Poetry: For future flexibility this home was designed with fully integrated, programmable audio-visual, lighting, shades and heating/cooling systems that are easily accessed & modified via ipads and iphones, both on and offsite. Integrated radiant heat floors at indoor-outdoor zones efficiently extend indoor-outdoor living thru three seasons. Cross views and breezes in all main living spaces as well as 2nd floor master and child bedrooms encourage passive, energy-saving cooling. Sunlight and shadows, resulting from rhythmic bands of windows and doors, move across rooms throughout the day, reinforcing the house’s partnership with the landscape.
