Kettle Hole House

Kettle Hole House by Robert Young

Architects: Robert Young
Location: East Hampton, New York, USA
Architect In Charge: Robert Young
Design Team: Mara Indra, Marlene Toerper, Shea Murdock
Project Architect: Kiyomi Troemner
Year: 2008
Photographs: Frank Oudeman

This project developed organically to respond to our client’s seven acre site, which was sheltered by white pines, offered unobstructed views of the water, and housed a beautiful kettle pond. The property contained an existing house, c 1982, which was in need of a major renovation. Because of serious rot and the low quality of the initial construction, it was not clear that a restoration would cost less than a new house. Our instinct is always to save and reuse things rather than throw them away, so we were keen to find ways to keep the house economically. Surveys of the property indicated that the house was closer to the kettle pond than current town setbacks would allow; if we were to build a new house rather than renovate, it would have to be pushed back closer to the property line, compromising the privacy and water views that made this parcel so appealing.
While the existing house was full of quirky layout moments, such as dark narrow halls and high windows facing the view, the basic parti of the house worked quite well — living spaces bookended by the master suite and guest bedrooms. By filling in a windowless courtyard and carport, we were able to enlarge the kitchen and dining areas, and add a den and a screened porch without extending the actual footprint of the house. This not only allowed for extra space, but also dramatically improved the awkward flow between the existing spaces. Without moving load-bearing walls, we merged the kitchen, living and dining areas into an open, flowing plan.
We transformed the appearance of the house with an economy of means using new siding and windows with accenting cement panels. The windowless ‘silo’ stairwell was replaced with a rectangular stair tower with a simple but delicate stair of blackened steel. Wide expanses of glass and exterior materials that cross over into the interiors, such as the cedar siding and cement panels, blur the line between inside and out. The interior palette of natural materials, colors, and fabrics is juxtaposed with occasional strong contrasting elements, complementing the surrounding woodlands.

Source: archdaily.com

Under Pohutukawa Beach House

Under Pohutukawa Beach House by Herbst Architects

The site with which we were presented was extremely challenging in that it was 90% covered in mature pohutukawa trees, the site being a part of a continuous belt of forest that edges the road along the beach front.

The circumstances not so much allowed, but dictated a sensitive poetic response to a building that, in order to exist would require the destruction of a large number of mature trees. To do this we looked to the trees themselves to give us the cues that we needed.

We separated the brief loosely into private and “public” components, giving us smaller individual masses with which to articulate the forms. The private functions of bedrooms and garage are housed in two towers which are construed as freshly sawn stumps of the trees that were removed.

To allude to the bark of the stumps the skins of the towers are clad in black/brown stained rough sawn irregular battens. The interior spaces are then seen as carved out of the freshly cut wood, achieved by detailing all the wall / ceiling and cabinetry elements in the same light timber.

The public space connects the two towers and attempts to engage with the surrounding pohutukawa forest by defining a crossover space between the powerful natural environment and the built form. The plane of the roof form pins off the towers to engage with the continuous tree canopy, disintegrating from a rigid plane to a frayed edge which filters light in a similar way to the leaf canopy.

The primary structure holding up the roof is a series of treeelements which allude to the trunks and branches of trees but are detailed in a rigorous geometric arrangement which suggests an ordering of nature as it enters and forms the building.

The height of the public space with its light glass division responds to the height of the surrounding trees, the roof planeis partially glass to allow the full extent of the trees to be felt as they lean over the building. A walkway links the towers at the upper level allowing engagement with both the natural and man made canopies.