Located in the dunes of Amagansett, the existing courtyard house was well loved by its owners, but was in serious need of an upgrade. Systems were all outdated or inadequate, and the structure itself in poor shape. Since the owners did not want to part with the charm of the current configuration, but were in need of more bedrooms, we sought a variance to rebuild the house, switching out some of the unusable two story height space for a second story. In keeping with the inside outside theme, parts of the house are separated either horizontally or vertically by exterior spaces. A sun porch acts as a connector between main living space and bedrooms on the ground floor. This space will completely open up with folding doors in the summer time. Upstairs bedrooms are connected by an exterior walkway, and the main stair in the house is exterior as well. The stair continues to a roof top deck, which takes advantage of the brilliant ocean view. One of the main driving forces of the project is keeping it green and keeping it simple. The house is designed to achieve lower maintenance and have less carbon footprint by employing evacuated solar thermal collector tubes to supply domestic hot water and radiant floor heating, PV solar panels to produce electricity, and green roof for less heating/cooling loads. The structure itself is basic wood framing on cylindrical concrete footings. A mix of conventional products with inventive design are employed to keep cost down.
Located in the dunes of Amagansett, the existing courtyard house was well loved by its owners, but was in serious need of an upgrade. Systems were all outdated or inadequate, and the structure itself in poor shape. Since the owners did not want to part with the charm of the current configuration, but were in need of more bedrooms, we sought a variance to rebuild the house, switching out some of the unusable two story height space for a second story. In keeping with the inside outside theme, parts of the house are separated either horizontally or vertically by exterior spaces. A sun porch acts as a connector between main living space and bedrooms on the ground floor. This space will completely open up with folding doors in the summer time. Upstairs bedrooms are connected by an exterior walkway, and the main stair in the house is exterior as well. The stair continues to a roof top deck, which takes advantage of the brilliant ocean view. One of the main driving forces of the project is keeping it green and keeping it simple. The house is designed to achieve lower maintenance and have less carbon footprint by employing evacuated solar thermal collector tubes to supply domestic hot water and radiant floor heating, PV solar panels to produce electricity, and green roof for less heating/cooling loads. The structure itself is basic wood framing on cylindrical concrete footings. A mix of conventional products with inventive design are employed to keep cost down.