Underhill

2017 Builder's Choice & Custom Home Design Awards
Custom Home More Than 5,000 Square Feet: Grand

This 6,340-square-foot single-family residence designed by East Hampton, N.Y.–based Bates Masi + Architects is configured as a complex of four interconnected pavilions on a 3-acre site in Matinecock, N.Y.

The Quaker heritage of the area informed the solution, which establishes a simple, yet strong, sense of place within an otherwise undistinguished suburban locale. Each pavilion contains a courtyard that, when coupled with the surrounding landscaped spaces, allow every area within the home to have two exterior exposures. The central volume includes the primary public living spaces—including family room, dining, and kitchen—with the two pavilions facing the front yard containing the main entry and guest facilities in one, and the garage and utility spaces in the other.

The rear mass houses the sleeping quarters on two levels—with the master suite on the first floor and three bedrooms on the second. Each volume is topped with an eccentrically gabled roof whose form folds inward. The ceilings of the interior spaces follow the same outlines, resulting in constantly changing volumes that are sheathed in horizontal oak boards. Weathered metal strips run across the oak ceilings, with parallel insets concealing lights and other utilities. A simple palette of stone, wood, glass, and metal is applied inside and out: The exteriors are clad in shingles—wood at the main walls and roofs, and stone in the below-grade areas. The materials are reminders of the Quaker precedent, while the design’s abstract forms and playful change of scales make clear that this home is no simple replication of historical forms.

2016 Residential Architect Design Awards
Custom House More Than 3,000 Square Feet: Award

Bates Masi + Architects designed the Underhill residence as a place that embodies the Quaker tenets of simplicity, humility, and inner focus for a professional couple and their children. The 6,340-square-foot complex on a 3-acre suburban site in Matinecock, N.Y., is composed of four shingled and gable-roofed pavilions that are reminiscent of early Quaker settlements in the area, but reimagined as a modern and minimalist contemplative retreat. “It is a study of vernacular forms done in a completely novel way,” juror Kevin Kudo-King said. “It is well-detailed and well-crafted, and creates great spaces.”

The north side of the complex presents three primarily opaque pavilions to the street: the entry and guest quarters sit to the east, the main living spaces occupy the center structure, and the garage and utility spaces sit to the west. A fourth, two-story pavilion sits behind the others and houses the bedrooms. The south corners of each of the pavilions feature curtain-lined sliding glass walls that can be opened wide, dematerializing the barrier between the interiors and the backyard. Central courtyards within each pavilion provide every room with at least two exterior exposures. Oak floors and weathered-oak ceiling boards in the interiors are laid concentrically around the courtyards, providing material warmth while accentuating the geometry of the exterior spaces.

This article appeared in ARCHITECT's December 2016 issue.