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Southampton's Centrifugal Villa creates a center
Photo credit: Permission OBRA Architects
Sited on five acres on the edge of a reserve in Southampton, an almost-hexagonal home the architects call the Centrifugal Villa looks south over agricultural fields that resemble a sea of wheat.
The house is built around a void so that the home creates a center, says architect Pablo Castro of OBRA Architects in New York City, the designers. The initial design was round, but the clients didn’t like that, so Castro says his firm came up with the almost-hexagonal design, where it is missing one side. “The house is like half a doughnut. Most rooms open in two directions. It’s like a snake trying to bite its own tail but not quite making it,” Castro says. “The house invites you to walk it. It bends on itself.”
The perspective created by the walls and play of light from the many windows is constantly changing, Castro says. “The house looks south and it folds in that direction, and every time it folds there’s a dormer. That’s why we call it the centrifugal house.”
“The dormers are really big so the feeling of the form is different. As a proper shingle-style house, it will be a little weird,” he says. “The outside skin is board and batten so it has verticality against the long, horizontal shape. We felt it would balance well.”
The five-acre property, mentioned recently in the Curbed Hamptons blog, includes guest quarters above the four-car garage, a heated pool and pool house -- two pool houses, actually. One is built for year-round occupancy while the other, a twin, “is a ghost of that one with lattice, built perforated so light and air get hrough. It’s like a freckle machine,” for the family’s children, Castro says.
The 8,350-square-foot house has seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, three soapstone fireplaces, ash wood floors, a living room, a dining room, a library, a kitchen and a partially finished basement that includes a wine cellar and a media projection room. Including the pool house and guest studio above the garage, the square footage is approximately 12,000.
The home was built by East Hampton builder Ronan O’Dwyer, who Castro says worked with them to find the right materials and build it economically while maintaining design standards.
OBRA architect Jennifer Lee says among the home’s green elements are geothermal heating, with a backup boiler, and passive design tricks – using lots of daylight from the many windows to reduce electricity use, as well as taking advantage of natural cross ventilation on the narrow cross-section of the home.
Tags: Southampton , unusual homes
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