Location: Amenia, New York
Program: Residential
Size: 850 SF
Status: Completed, 2013
Photography: Sonja Zinke
The Studio House is the initial move in a larger vision for a family compound. The small structure – which will eventually become a guest house, is a composition of simple forms that combine to create distinctly functional spaces. The low-slung, solid, northern portion of the house contains bathing facilities and a private outdoor shower / courtyard. The gable-formed, larger volume is a single open room that provides sleeping, food preparation, and living space – all opened onto an expansive view of upstate farmland and rolling hills.
The house doubles as a recording studio (the owner is a singer / songwriter / producer). To achieve this multi-functionality, the form and materiality of the house are adjustable for variable combinations of surfaces and alignments. The shape of the house is trapezoidal and the roof form expands in a corresponding manner so that no walls are parallel and the roof volume swells. The interior walls are clad in a soft wood and feature doors that enclose storage spaces but can be used to tune the room. The exterior is clad in wood shingles, local stone, and wood siding that will eventually integrate with the landscape, which will be left primarily wild.