PROJECT DESCRIPTION
  • While waiting on the daunting permit and approval process that comes with building on an eagle preserve, our client for the Espilatt house bought a smaller plot of land to the north and asked if we could design a pre-fab house sort of like a trailer that he could use as soon as possible.

  • The house consists of two parts a vertical lightwell/staircase that connects to path to the lake below which is intersected by a tapered steel form that expands toward the lake. Within the building enclosure, individual programmatic components are assembled to fit into the fixed envelope, much like a contortionist, artfully compressing the mass of their body into unique configurations. By eroding all non-structural walls and partitions, the program flows effortlessly between the exterior skin.

  • The aperture strategy results from a desire to both minimize the quantity for privacy and efficiency in terms of environmental performance, and to maximize size for views, ventilation and light. With the relationship of the site and building to the road, the conventional rear of the house in essence becomes its front. The house projects over the cliff edge giving a panoramic view of the Swinging Bridge Reservoir, additional punctures to the form open up the kitchen to the upper cliff edge and allow the bedroom and bathroom to suspend over a small fern garden and create views to the adjacent Bald Eagle Preserve.

    • ESPILLAT GUEST HOUSE
    Forestburgh NY 2007

    CLIENT: Priamo Espillat
    TYPE: commission
    PROGRAM: guest house
    SIZE: 1200SF
    BUDGET: $550,000
    STATUS: ongoing