Project Details
- Project Name
- Sagg Farm
- Project Types
- Custom Home
- Project Scope
- New Construction
- Shared by
- Madeleine D'Angelo
- Project Status
- Built
2020 RADA Winner
Architectural Design Detail, Award
Sagg Farm
Sagaponack, N.Y.
Bates Masi + Architects
Sagg Farm—a two-story country house in the Hamptons designed by Bates Masi + Architects—has claimed a special prize for architectural detail, in recognition of its innovative and eye-catching exterior cladding system. The cedar façade that attracted the jury’s notice chimes conceptually and aesthetically with the house as a whole: Natural timber finishes line the interior, from the built-in children’s bunk beds, to the woodblock ceiling over the airy dining room, to the movable timber louvers (each bracing a strip of sound-buffering fabric) that flank the all-wood staircase. Organic design is the keynote of Bates Masi’s approach, and it also informs the plan of this house: Divided into three north-south bays, the layout is intended to recall the traditional planting patterns of the region’s agricultural past.
The same earthy logic dictated the choice of exterior cedar, which was freshly milled before being installed, and remains untreated by weathering chemicals or stain. The lateral strips, all positioned within surrounding frames, are affixed in the center with two screws, but left free at the ends. As the wood ages and bends, slight irregularities will result—each rib will assume a slightly different angle, creating a beguiling visual effect. Seen from the yard, the façade creates a pleasingly offbeat rhythm that softens the building’s almost Louis Kahn–like monumentality—as though the old master had traded in his cement trowel for a carpenter’s saw. And from the other side, the ribs filter dappled, dancing light into the interior spaces.
Project Credits
Project: Sagg Farm
Architects: Bates Masi + Architects, East Hampton, N.Y. Paul Masi, AIA
General Contractor: Lettieri Construction
Structural Engineer: Steven Maresca
Landscape Architect: Bates Masi + Architects
Photo credit: Bates Masi + Architects