This Hamptons Getaway Blends Seamlessly Into a Lush Landscape

Cedar, reclaimed ipe, and Corten steel combine in a multigenerational home designed to gracefully age in place.

Text by

Put off by the site "insensitive" and wealth-flaunting homes that have popped up around the Hamptons, a couple with a five-acre property overlooking the Peconic Bay asked New York–based architect and interior design studio Mapos for a more understated weekend getaway that eschews flashy extravagance.

Located in the Hampton Bays, the Peconic House is sandwiched between an old-growth forest and the waterfront.

In response, the architects crafted a custom 4,000-square-foot home—dubbed the Peconic House—gently wedged into a hillock with sweeping views of the waterfront.

To minimize the compound’s visual impact, an expansive green roof with native meadow grasses is set atop the structure, while a natural material palette helps camouflage the building into the landscape.

A bird's eye view of the home, which sits on five acres of bluff top.

The home is located far from the road on the northwest corner of the property and oriented toward views of the water.

"The couple requested a compound that leaves as little imprint on the site as possible," explain the architects of their longtime clients, who were especially drawn to the firm’s "vision of reasserting the Hamptons’ creative and environmental legacies."

"Because the clients expressed a lifelong interest in Richard Serra and Andy Goldsworthy, the unfolding sequence with which one encounters these modern artists’ installations inspired our strategy for approaching the residence," notes the firm. "Approaching guests follow a meandering stone wall through the woods and meadow of the site, eventually leading to a crisp line of Corten steel piercing the meadow; moving toward that image ultimately reveals the main residence, and conveys the visitor to its threshold."

The home's shell of timber and corten steel will develop a natural patina over time.

Spread out across two floors, the low-slung, five-bedroom home connects to a 2,000-square-foot outdoor terrace that steps down the hillock in parallel to the residence and culminates in a 75-foot-long, infinity-edge lap pool. A simple material palette of concrete, cedar, reclaimed ipe wood, and Corten steel help tie the building to the land and are deliberately unfinished to develop a natural patina over time.

The 75-foot-long, infinity-edge lap pool extends to the west.

A 100-foot-long glass wall opens the view up to views of the bay.

The primary living areas as well as the master suite are located on the main floor, where walls of operable glass along the northeast side frame panoramic views of Peconic Bay. The lower level, built into the hillock, houses the secondary bedrooms and utility rooms.

The timber for the stepped terrace was sourced from Madera-Trade. The terrace include a sundeck, outdoor dining, and an outdoor kitchen.

An Acucraft fireplace divides the family room from the living room. The interior flooring is also by Madera-Trade.

"Every design decision supports this blurring of built environment and nature: the green roof promotes biodiversity while its cantilevers provide daylight harvesting in the morning and shade in the afternoon, and articulation of the east elevation creates a prow-like bay window for the master bedroom," explain the architects, who also led the interior design.

Shop the Look

Bathed in light, the master bedroom overlooks stunning waterfront views.

The bathroom fixtures include Waterworks, Duravit, Kohler, and Geberit.

"The interiors’ abstraction and literalness play off one another, an intimate and overall sustainability strategy that makes this project as sympathetic to the environment, performance-wise, as it is visually."