Bridgehampton Beach House | Steven Harris Architects

In Bridgehampton, this formally innovative home reimagines oceanfront living. Referencing work by Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx, it deploys modern architectural strategies embrace its natural setting. Strategic moves include placing the home’s public programming on the second floor and employing floor-to-ceiling glass to maximize daylight and ocean views. A sculptural pavilion-turned-reflecting-pool thematically draws the ocean even closer. The house’s rectilinearity contrasts with the curvilinear forms of the pool pavilion, stair enclosure, kitchen island, and bermed landscape. The house celebrates art, including site specific pieces such as a three-sided mural and cast concrete relief wall, to draw visitors inside. 

The clients, A New York family, desired a piece of architecture that cultivated a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere while maximizing views of the ocean. Though the property was on the ocean, a large dune prevented ocean views on the home’s entry level, where public living spaces would traditionally be placed. As a result, the home adopted an upside-down configuration, with a greater proportion of the home’s spaces, including living, office, and bedroom spaces, placed on the second floor to maximize ocean views. To compensate for the entry level’s lack of views, the entry hall’s large windows face a glamorous pool deck and sinuous pavilion inspired by Roberto Burle Marx and Oscar Niemeyer. This decision helps transform one of the home’s least desirable spaces into one of its most inviting.

The house was conceived of as a series of cantilevered glassy volumes with deep overhangs hinging off of brick masses. It is raised on bermed earth sculpted around piling and concrete piers to mitigate flood risk. Stucco, steel, and light brick define the exterior, creating an abstracted material surface that light can play off of. On the interior, these materials are complimented by luxurious stones, including travertine, Carrera and rainbow onyx. A Grigio Olivo stone floor unites the interior and exterior, providing the impression of a continuity of space.

The project innovates by rethinking programmatic traditions to maximize ocean views. Unusually, a majority of the program, including the combined kitchen, living, and dining area, are placed on the upper level. This contradicts convention, which normally holds that such public spaces be placed on the entry level. The public areas resultingly enjoy a panoramic vista of the ocean over the nearby dune, which would otherwise have blocked the view. The home’s structural system deploys a series of dynamic cantilevers to enable this top-heavy distribution of space. The result is a cascading series of dynamic volumes with south facing exposure.

To increase the immediacy of the ocean, the project introduces a sinuous pool pavilion with a reflecting pool as the roof, which brings water to the foreground of the second-floor view and ties the pavilion to the ocean beyond. The undulating form of the pavilion, which takes formal inspiration from Brazilian modernist masters such as Roberto Burle Marx and Oscar Niemeyer, was realized through a series of custom-engineered curved ribs that were sheathed like the hull of a boat before being plastered to read as monolithic.

The Bridgehampton Beach house considers both people and planet in its construction.

The architect utilized sustainable building materials to increase resiliency and reduce the building's embodied and operational carbon footprints. The home employs a suite of solar panels to offset its energy consumption. The home is elevated above the floodplain on cast concrete piers and breakaway block walls, which were then hidden from view by berming dirt against the house. This technique makes the home more resilient to flooding.

Additionally, south-facing thermally broken windows with a low E coating and generous overhangs mitigate energy consumption during the hot summer days while letting in light and warmth in the dreary winter months. The home’s reflecting pool is entirely rain-replenished and consumes no potable water. 

The design serves its inhabitants by integrating the house into the surrounding dunes, emphasizing the nature beyond. Despite the home’s ambitious scale, the architects expended considerable effort to “fragment” the building’s massing, ensuring that the building’s considerable mass would never be witnessed at once. This respects the human scale of the project’s inhabitants and helps to make the building seem more inviting.

The home incorporates sustainable landscaping practices, with the planting of tall grasses and native species to help extend the dunescape around the home. The planting has the additional benefit of minimizing the visual impact of the house.

Architecture Firm: Steven Harris Architects 

Lead Architects: Steven Harris, Abir Ahmad

Interiors & Landscape: RRP (formerly Rees Roberts & Partners) 

Photography: Eric Petschek (https://ericpetschek.com/)