Unlike many coastal homes, East Hampton Modern by Workshop/APD is not defined by its proximity to the beach or sweeping ocean views. Rather, this Hamptons home finds its grounding in an agricultural setting, where abundant wildflowers and swathes of farmland set the bucolic tone. The client – a New York City-based executive – spent many years holidaying in the preceding home on the property. Having outgrown the residence, he approached Workshop/APD to design a larger home that would not only embrace the surrounding landscape but house friends from New York City and family for weekends and overnight stays. “We started to think about how you develop a house like that, and that’s what brought together this idea of a contained main house with a separate two-bedroom guesthouse all under one roof,” says founding principal Matthew Berman. The resulting architecture is defined by a series of gabled forms that stretch across the site with an internal courtyard. Clad entirely in shou sugi ban charred timber with a black, standing seam metal roof, the materials and the design reference the barn-like vernacular typical to the area through a bold, contemporary lens. Located at the end of a winding driveway – which contributes to the feeling of a respite from the hubbub of nearby East Hampton village – the home is immediately captivating in this leafy setting. Though the architecture and overall built form play a heavy hand in this home’s identity, so too does the landscaping. Conceived by Abby Clough Lawless of Farm Landscape Design, wildflowers and natural grasses envelop the home. As the architect Matthew comments, this unruliness is what sets the home apart. “Abby has created an amazing wonderland,” he says, adding that the planting comes “right up to the coping of the pool so you really feel like this home is set in a natural environment that, frankly, has been very untouched or unmanicured in a way that [differs from] a lot of other properties in the area.” The house tour shows the arrival sequence, which brings guests into a central, covered breezeway separating the main house to the right and the guesthouse to the left. Directly ahead is the pool and garden that unfurl from the timber deck, drawing visitors deeper into the property. “When you walk into this space, you’re underneath this amazing umbrella of a roof – it really contains you but you’re still outside,” explains Matthew. Stepping inside, guests are greeted by an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area. Fully glazed walls capture views and the interior design and decor echo the exterior. The kitchen anchors the space, and the powder room, primary bedroom and bathroom are all located deeper into the plan with sophisticated decor. Lastly, a private outdoor shower sits at the tip of the house where a small opening in the full-height timber walls frames a charming vignette of the farmland. One of this home’s most consistent threads is its distinct connection to landscape. Not only has it been conceived as a response to its context, it effortlessly embraces the site’s natural condition.
00:00 - Introduction To The Holiday Home 00:32 - The East Hampton Location 01:08 - The Brief And The Potential 02:00 - Connecting With Nature 02:43 - A Walkthrough Of The Home 04:01 - Inspired By Natural Textures And Colours 05:01 - A Pool Enveloped By Nature 06:05 - Personal Highlights Of The Project For more from The Local Project: Instagram – / thelocalproject Website – https://thelocalproject.com.au/ LinkedIn – / the-local-project-publication Print Publication – https://thelocalproject.com.au/public... Hardcover Book – https://thelocalproject.com.au/book/ The Local Project Marketplace – https://thelocalproject.com.au/market... For more from The Local Production: Instagram – / thelocalproduction_ Website – https://thelocalproduction.com.au/ LinkedIn – / thelocalproduction To subscribe to The Local Project's tri-annual print publication see here – https://thelocalproject.com.au/subscr... Photography by Donna Dotan. Architecture by Workshop/APD. Build by Shoshi Builders. Landscape design by Farm Landscape Design. Engineering by Craft Enginerring Studio. Filmed and edited by O&Co. Homes. Production by The Local Project.
Location: East Hampton, New York, United States The Local Project acknowledges the traditional territories and homelands of the Indigenous peoples in the United States. We recognise the importance of Indigenous peoples in the identity of our respective countries and continuing connections to Country and community. We pay our respect to Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Indigenous people of these lands.
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This house has an incredibly intimate scale
and a fantastic connection to nature.
It just breathes really, really well.
My name is Matt Berman. I'm one of the founding principals of Workshop APD
and this is East Hampton Modern.
East Hampton is on the eastern tip of Long Island in an area known as the Hamptons
and it really is a celebrated vacation destination for New Yorkers looking to escape the city.
This house is in an interesting location. It's not on the water.
It's actually an internal lot on an agricultural reserve,
so you're surrounded by farmlands and nature and it's pretty spectacular.
Our client had lived on this property for quite some time and there was a house here
that really was just too small and didn't meet his needs.
And so when he approached me, we started thinking about what the potential of this site was.
When he was out here by himself or with his partner, they wanted intimacy.
When they wanted to have a bunch of friends out, they wanted the house to expand
to a place where they could entertain with a lot of guests and friends on the weekends.
So we started to think about how do you develop a house like that.
That's what brought together this idea of a contained
main house with a separate two-bedroom guest house all under one roof.
One of the interesting discussions that we had with the client at the very beginning was that
his original home or the original home that was on the site was very disconnected from the outside.
But the outside is incredible.
You're surrounded by farmlands, fences, really cool old farm machinery
and kind of gives you a vibe.
And so we wanted you to always be connected to the outside.
We wanted that connection to the outside to be reinforced over and over and over again.
First, when you come up to the house,
you're coming up a very long driveway.
So you sort of see the house set in its environment and it's really, really wonderful.
As you pull around the back of the house, really what's technically the front,
you're then coming through this breezeway and seeing the pool and the landscape.
So no matter where you look, you're always connected to the outside.
Now, when you walk into this space, you're now kind of underneath this amazing umbrella of a roof.
It really contains you, but you're still outside.
And when you walk to the right, you walk into the main living space,
which is kitchen, dining and living room.
You walk further into the space and you get to some of the areas like a powder room and a laundry room.
And then you walk finally into the primary bedroom and primary bathroom.
Now, when you come in the breezeway and go the other way,
you see two really great guest rooms with ensuite bathrooms.
When you're outside this home, it really is all about the nature and the landscape
and the wildflowers and the colors and the textures that are all around you.
So we wanted the exterior materials to merge seamlessly with that.
So the decking surfaces are all Ipe, which weathers to a really nice silvery gray.
We went with a Shoshugiban siding, which is a Japanese technique for charring wood.
Around the pool is a blue stone.
And then most of the pathways are really just a natural river rock.
And in the kitchen, the palette is very similar to the exterior.
We wanted to bring that darkness and richness inside
so that it wasn't jarring when you moved from one to the other.
All of the millwork inside the home is also dark.
The walls are a stark white and the floor is a very soft gray.
When we were thinking about the concept of the house
and we were going through a lot of planning iterations,
we always knew we liked this idea of a small primary house with a small guest house
with a break in the middle that took you on an axis right through to the back area,
to the backyard.
And we knew that we wanted the pool right there.
We wanted that pool to be this moment that as you came through the breezeway,
you saw the blueness and the richness and the color of the pool
then enveloped by the landscape around it.
Well, Abby from Farm Design took it to a whole new level
and really created an amazing wonderland.
She planted natural grasses and wildflowers everywhere.
They come right up to the coping of the pool.
So you really feel like this home is just set in a natural environment
that frankly has been very untouched or unmanicured
the way that a lot of other houses in the area might be.
I'm often asked what my favorite project is and over 22 years,
it's difficult to pick just one,
but this project certainly ranks high on the list.
We had an incredible client who saw the vision from the beginning
and wanted to execute it.
We had an incredible team in my office
who was incredibly passionate and excited about the project.
And then we had an incredible contractor who executed the vision.
So if you were to look back at the renderings of the idea
of what we wanted to do and look at reality,
it was a seamless process from beginning to end.
My favorite part of this house is what you see from the air,
is what you see when you're kind of hovering above the fields,
looking at this expression of this house
with all the repeated gables nestled into the landscape.
It is a perfect fit.
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