M&B Architects And Interiors

House In The Lanes

House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone

HOUSE IN THE LANES

MB Architecture

ARCHITECTS
MB Architecture

LEAD ARHITECTS
Maziar Behrooz, Bruce Engel, assistants: Haotian Xu, Brandon Ma

HANGING SCULPTURE
Alice Hope

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Shepard Butler, Brian Bare at SBLA

MANUFACTURERS
VMZINC, Bega, Duravit, Lucifer Lighting, Stone Source, Subzero, TechLighting, Unilux, Viking, Viking Range, Waterworks, reSAWN TIMBER co.

CONTRACTOR
Richard Swanson Contracting

LIGHTING DESIGN
Caitlin Faron of Shine

WOOD SIDING
ReSawn Timber Co

LANDSCAPE INSTALLATION
Landscape Details

PHOTOGRAPHS
Matthew Carbone

AREA
7300 ft²

YEAR
2017

LOCATION
Amagansett, United States

CATEGORY
Houses

House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone

Text description provided by architect.

The ‘lanes’ in Amagansett, New York, are a set of walkable streets perpendicular to Main street, dotted with a diverse range of houses and styles, that is walking distance to the ocean.

House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone

One of our challenges was to create a home that would accommodate the owners wish for a maintenance-free house with longevity, inside and outside.

This led to building shapes and materials that would be hardy, devoid of delicate detailing, and requiring no re-finishing over time.

House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone

All exterior materials, from the charred cypress to raw concrete walls, to the zinc roof, are chosen for their ability to weather and patina naturally over time.

Windows and doors are pushed tight up to the forward plane of the clapboards to keep a tight weather seal.

House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone

In a departure from recent additions to the area, where houses extend from side to side, on a given parcel, often choking it, we opted to let the side facade, the narrow end, be the street-front.

By doing so, we were able to let the longer side of the house face south and direct sun, while maintaining a suitable distance to the neighbors. The front yard is softened with a green buffer, a meadow, which over time will grow and create a natural green zone along the street while creating privacy for the homeowners.

House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone

The first impression of the house is that of a raw, unfinished, concrete wall sitting in this meadow; its profile echoing the familiar shape of a barn. It hides the garage and scales the front face of the house down to meet that of older homes that were prevalent in the lanes.

Quickly, the concrete gives way to a slightly charred cypress (an organic anti-termite material), starting a play between these two materials that extends throughout the house — contrasting spaces of a recluse (wood) with foundational anchoring walls (concrete).

The ground level is dedicated to living spaces and offers a bedroom for guests. In the living room, a raw steel box is inserted into a concrete wall providing accessible storage for our client's collection of rare and vintage vinyl records.

House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone

The connection with the outdoors, size of windows and overhangs, is carefully managed to both addresses the clients’ wish for a strong sense of interiority, as well as the filtering of natural light.

The second floor holds the parent's bedroom, at the far end. It is separated from the children’s bedrooms with a second-floor porch and roof ‘cut-out’.

The porch is entered through a south-facing sliding glass door that, together with the north-facing ribbon window.

House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone

Allow natural light to filter into the house and reflect down into the heart of the house via narrow slits, and openings, along with the staircase and its concrete stair-wall.

A sunken courtyard on the south side of the house and a generous light-well on the north break the flatness of the site and allow light to be filtered into the lower level, transforming a basement into a well-lit family room with a private outdoor space.

House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone


House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone
House In The Lanes
© Matthew Carbone


House In The Lanes
Elevations and Sections
House In The Lanes
Sections


House In The Lanes
Floor Plans
House In The Lanes
Site Plan

M&B Architects And Interiors
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M&B Architects And Interiors
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