House Between Forest and Field is a 3,600sf house at the edge of an agricultural area in Stanfordville NY.  While compact in its footprint and barn-like massing, the three-story house engages in various ways with the expansive landscape around it.  Situated at the boundary between forest and field on its 13-acre lot, the narrow house is also inspired by both, joining together the exterior identity of agricultural buildings with an interior organization inspired by the spatial experience of a forest.

As a result of its slender 27’ width and large picture windows, the house acts as a permeable filter to the landscape beyond when seen from the exterior, while allowing a continuous connection to the outdoors from every space within.

The family that lives here therefore comes into daily contact with the land, oscillating between the intimacy of the forest and the expansiveness of the changing hills of Dutchess County beyond.

A series of Luan plywood-clad “cores” inside the house contain various uses (storage, kitchen counter and appliances, stair, powder room, library, fan coils), while delineating different zones for living within a fluid continuum.   A covered porch extends living between inside and outside, while appearing ambiguously as an interior space, due to the continuity of the house’s cedar rain screen cladding.

Client: Private Client
Location: Dutchess County, NY
Status: Phase 1 Completed; Phase 2 Under Construction
Dates: 2019 – 2022 (Phase 1)
Sq Footage: 3,500sf (Phase 1)
Program: Private home for a family of four on a 13 acre property.
Environmental: Geothermal

Design Team (Phase 1): Eric Bunge, Mimi Hoang | Isabel Sarasa | Laura Lee, Paul Mok, Jason Kim | Adina Bauman | Michelle Lin, Emilie O’Neill

Collaborators: Site & Civil Engineering: T.M. DePuy Engineering & Land Surveying P.C. | Structural Engineer: SILMAN | MEP: OLA Consulting Engineers, PC | Lighting Designer: Lumen Architecture, PLLC | Cost Estimator: Ellana Inc

Builders: UCE Fine Builders