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Architects: Allied Works Architecture
- Year: 2007
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Photographs:Jeremy Bittermann
Text description provided by the architects. The Dutchess County Residence - Guest House is nestled within a mature deciduous forest of oak, hickory, and birch as a part of a larger site plan including a private residence and gallery. Situated above a bend in Ryder Creek it represents a place of silence, rest and reflection. Designed by Allied Works Architecture the home has received recognition from the American Institute of Architects, New York Chapter, receiving a 2009 Honor Award.
Allied Works Architecture was selected to site and design a private residence, with a guesthouse, an “art barn” for a private art collection, and various outbuildings on 450 acres of meadow and forest, approximately 100 miles north of New York City.
In summer, the house is animated by birdsong and immersed in dappled light. In winter, the house sits exposed in field of black tree trunks against a floor of white snow.
The structure of the house, a continuous line of eight-inch steel, moves through the site gathering in the forest. Constructed as a series of interlocking cantilevers, the structure edits and measures the forest, preparing the landscape for dwelling. Rooms are formed by panels of glass and wood that slip between, over, and through the frame as it meanders among the trees. The house provides a tenuous sense of boundary—held for a moment under the forest canopy, framing the changing light and seasons.
