Houzz Tour: Modern Home Nestled in Nature in New York
Architects create serenity with mathematical order in a home designed with sustainability in mind
The Catskill region in New York is home to the Catskill Mountains and many lush forests, rivers, lakes and dams. “These mountains were a source of inspiration for the painters of the Hudson River School, whose motto of ‘discovery, exploration and settlement’ led them to portray the wild and changing beauty of the deciduous forests,” says architect Jesús Donaire of the 19th-century group of landscape painters known for idealized naturalism. Donaire was in charge of the project alongside his cofounder at Donair Milans Arquitectos, architect María Milans del Bosch.
It is hard to imagine a more beautiful environment for a home. Aware of their incursion on this landscape, the architects set themselves the challenge of creating a building that would be sensitive to its surroundings.
It is hard to imagine a more beautiful environment for a home. Aware of their incursion on this landscape, the architects set themselves the challenge of creating a building that would be sensitive to its surroundings.
The wood on the facade has an iridescent quality, which reflects the changing light and colors of the seasons and times of day. “We used carbonized cedar created using the Japanese shou sugi ban technique, which gives the wood greater resistance to water, fire and insects, with no maintenance,” Donaire says.
Donaire and Milans del Bosch met when they were studying advanced architectural design at Columbia University. The house was first built as a show home and was then sold to its current owners, a family that moved in during the pandemic.
The home has two stories, with two bedrooms on the ground floor and another two on the second floor arranged in a simple layout. Four bathrooms of varying sizes include a primary bedroom en suite and a guest bathroom on the ground floor.
Instead of a traditional double-pitched roof, the architects decided to split the home into two separate volumes with opposing roof slopes. This allows for an even taller double-height space in one of the sections, and a more spacious staircase in the other. It also draws a visual connection between the home and the mountains and valley with their gentle slopes.
It satisfies the architects’ commitment to well-planned sustainability. “Most of the openings are on the east and west sides to provide for cross ventilation, optimal exposure to heat from the sun and protection from the wind, which mainly comes from the north and south,” Donaire says.
The architects chose concrete on the ground floor and wood throughout to avoid problems in the build, as local builders and crews work with these materials almost exclusively.
The bookshelves in the double-height space, which comprise three shelves in seven sections, are echoed by a corresponding pattern of woodwork framing the windows. Two square fixed panes alternate with three thinner vertical panels with sections that can be opened. The design is reminiscent of Louis I. Kahn’s Esherick House, built in 1961 in Philadelphia.
The ceiling beams repeat the pattern of the windows — one, two, one, two, one — a design that creates order and serenity through pattern and geometry, that is, through mathematics.
The ceiling beams repeat the pattern of the windows — one, two, one, two, one — a design that creates order and serenity through pattern and geometry, that is, through mathematics.
There are more bookshelves on the other side of the room, next to a work and study area that runs the length of the space under the roof slope. Since there are no windows in the west wall, this part of the room relies on light from the double-height central space and the generous windows opposite.
Donaire Milans Arquitectos’ interest in controlled geometry can also be seen in their other projects, perhaps more markedly in the Castilian House Between Old Mud Walls, a glass and concrete pavilion where technical precision is at the service of poetic bareness.
Donaire Milans Arquitectos’ interest in controlled geometry can also be seen in their other projects, perhaps more markedly in the Castilian House Between Old Mud Walls, a glass and concrete pavilion where technical precision is at the service of poetic bareness.
“Wood is used both inside and outside the house. Inside it includes plywood on the ceiling, PSL [parallel strand lumber] in the columns and beams and solid wood in the joists,” Donaire says.
Similarly, “panels of Viroc, a composite of wood fibers and cement with good thermal inertia, moisture resistance and slight variation in nominal size, are used on the floor of the second story and all the bathroom and kitchen walls. These are essential characteristics for the proper functioning of the underfloor heating and in the wet areas of the house.”
Similarly, “panels of Viroc, a composite of wood fibers and cement with good thermal inertia, moisture resistance and slight variation in nominal size, are used on the floor of the second story and all the bathroom and kitchen walls. These are essential characteristics for the proper functioning of the underfloor heating and in the wet areas of the house.”
As in Kahn’s Esherick House, windows and voids produce spaces like this one, where the master bedroom wraps around the stairwell.
On a dark and snowy night, only the warm light it gives off hints at the existence of this home within shadows of the trees. Then again it’s hard to decide when the home is at its best: when it catches the light reflecting off the snow, or surrounded in springtime green.
Engineering: Luke Amey of LIA Engineering
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Engineering: Luke Amey of LIA Engineering
More on Houzz
Read more home tours
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House at a Glance
Who lives here: A family
Location: Grahamsville, New York
Size: 2,207 square feet (205 square meters)
Architect: Donaire Milans Arquitectos
The home is nestled in a dense forest of maples, oaks and birches. It was carefully built in a clearing at the intersection of two slopes, with the east-west incline more pronounced than its north-south counterpart. “A concrete slab and a U-shaped retaining wall open onto the opposite side of the road [covered in snow in these photos], where there are the best views of the mountains and the valley,” Donaire says.
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