Copake Lake, New York, USA
Category: Private Homes Year: 2021 Architects: Desai Chia Architecture PC Lead Architect: Katherine Chia Design Team: Katherine Chia and Arjun Desai Client: Copake Lake Family Photographers: Paul Warchol
From the first moments of arrival at the Copake Lake House, a ritual of leaving behind a bustling urban life begins to unfold. Located in Copake Lake, New York, the house engages its lakefront property through a series of framed volumetric compositions and material details that capture views of the water and create a flow between indoor and outdoor spaces. Bold forms belie a gentleness toward the home’s environment and are in fact direct results of an attitude of ecological respect.
Carefully considered spatial moves allow the owners and their visitors to appreciate the expansive waterfront views without sacrificing the comfort, functionality, and interest of the home’s interior. Stepping down the living room one feels nestled within the water, and the lake views from the adjacent dining area are unobstructed. Overhead, a pattern of crisscrossed structural wood beams supports a vaulted ceiling that resembles overlapping tree branches- a nod to the branching canopy of the adjacent old-growth oak trees. A window on the high side of the living room’s vault lets sunlight rake the crisscrossing members from mid-afternoon to early evening, and bounces warm light into the spaces below, accentuating the material texture and scale that the exposed structural system provides.
The home’s material palette is characterized by resilience and references the surrounding environment. Gray, vertical wood siding wraps the facades, resembling the protective bark of the nearby oak trees. This wood surface was lightly charred in the “shou sugi ban” method making it bug and rot-resistant, as well as maintenance-free. The underside of the cantilevers is clad in a rich, warm Douglas Fir wood that more closely resembles the interior’s exposed beams, visually connecting the indoor and outdoor spaces.
Growing unusually close to the waterfront are several large oak trees. In addition to providing a tremendous amount of shade in the warmer months, their foliage creates a dramatic, ever-changing foreground for the lake views, which the clients were keen to preserve. To protect the trees, the house has a modest foundation footprint, and the back deck is cantilevered over the trees’ root systems to avoid any disturbance to them. The home’s cantilevering elements were carefully positioned to capture views and ensure that the oak trees could continue to thrive on the water’s edge.
