Pool House
Stephentown, N.Y.
David Jay Weiner, Architects, P.C.

A hilltop refuge is conceived with Zen-like sparseness

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above.

Pool House is a modest-sized weekend house for a single person on a hilltop property overlooking the Berkshire Mountains with a lap pool, study area, living area, master bedroom suite, and wine cellar. The house is to have the compactness and interior sparseness akin to traditional Japanese architecture.

The house is conceived as a single sweeping volumetric "sheet" enclosure that wraps and folds into itself to form and define two major interior spaces and tie the house and lap pool with the landscape. The primary interior space is used for living, dining and cooking. An extended closed-in porch like aperture, analogous to an engawa or "in-between space" found in traditional Japanese architecture, extends off the main space to frame the primary view and create a transition between inside and outside. The secondary space serves as a master bedroom suite with access to the lap pool. The house is designed to be relatively inexpensive both in construction and maintenance. As much of the site as possible will be left untouched and restored for the growth of natural wild flowers.

Location:
Stephentown, N.Y.

Gross Square Footage:
1,200 sq. ft.

Architect:
David Jay Weiner, Architects, P.C.
(212) 674-0355

Project Team:
David J. Weiner, Andy Saunders, Dana Bettinger

Structural Engineer:
Robert Silman Associates, P.C.

Contractor:
George Lagonia, Jr. Inc. Spencertown, NY