Tivoli, New York, USA
Category: Vacation Homes Year: 2019 Location: Tivoli, New York, USA Architects: Messana O'Rorke Lead Architects: Brian Messana and Toby O'Rorke Design Team: Brian Messana, Toby O'Rorke, Viktor Nassli and Hanna Buja Client: Craig and Kirstin Nevill-Manning Photographer: Messana O'Rorke
This project began with a conundrum: How to design a better box? The client wanted a new guest cottage, but to avoid zoning issues was forced to stay within the one-story, rectangular envelope of the existing structure.
The opportunity was to make the box more livable and more beautiful, calling to mind Donald Judd’s simple-yet-beguiling boxes in mill aluminum. Through a number of iterations, we created our own ersatz Judd on a hillside in the midst of the Hudson River Valley, using light and materials to transcend the spatial restrictions.
The cottage is part of an early-twentieth-century estate on a wooded, 99-acre property that opens to spectacular views of the Hudson River in Tivoli, New York. We connected the house to the setting by opening the monolith with four sets of tall sheets of glass held in thin metal frames. For cladding, we selected corrugated, polished stainless steel (corrugated metal is a common vernacular in the owners’ native New Zealand) to create a rhythmically curved surface that mirrors and abstracts the changing sky and surrounding environment.
On opposing sides of the central great room, the glass panels allow unfettered views through the home to the outdoors and slide open to serve as the entry and to connect to a deck overlooking the yard with extended views. A built-in kitchen island covered in Carrara marble doubles as the dining room table and has two refrigerators and storage to improve the functionality of the nook kitchen. Originally, two bedrooms flanked the main living area.
The architects divided the south room into two bedrooms—one with bunk beds for children—along a hall leading to a shared bathroom. Tall, glass sliding doors in the west-facing bedrooms marry the vistas and open to the deck. In each bedroom, white oak containers conceal closets. Both bathrooms are clad in Carrara marble with a small, round window. New skylights bring shafts of natural light into the showers, and a third skylight opens and illuminates the hallway.
Not unlike an aerie, this guesthouse-cum-sanctum momentarily shelters and enthralls before offering flight to the extraordinary surroundings.
