Native New Yorkers, the Merola family have long held a tradition of spending summers in Rhode Island. When they learned the costs of renovating their existing cottage would significantly outweigh the benefits, they instead opted to build new. The result—a distinctively modernist box structure clad in milled slats of charred, brushed, and oiled cypress manufactured by Delta Millworks—sits nestled within the marshy landscape of Quonochontaug Pond.
Though the house is sleekly modern—some visitors unaccustomed to contemporary architecture have said it looks like a spaceship—there are winks to old-time Americana throughout the property.
The Chamberlain Cottage by Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius in Weyland, Massachusetts, photographed by Ezra Stoller in 1941.
Courtesy Carnegie Museum of Art, © Ezra Stoller/Esto, Yossi Milo Gallery
"We felt it was important to create continuity with nature, rather than compete with it," Soranno stated. "The connection with nature is what makes this place special."
The 1,800-square-foot home features a cantilevered design and diagonal cladding similar to that of Breuer’s own 1947 Connecticut residence. Hufft replaced the roof but maintained its flat profile—though finding the correct two-inch metal flashing was a challenge. “These are the details that make the original what I consider a masterpiece,” Hufft says.
Katie and Danny MacNelly met as University of Virginia architecture students and started their own practice, ARCHITECTUREFIRM, along with another former UVA classmate. Together, the couple designed and built their family’s country retreat, a three-volume residence near Virginia’s James River.
House O, designed by Jun Igarashi, forgoes hallways and interior doors in favor of casually interconnected rooms.