Split House

What were the circumstances of receiving the commission for this project?

Split House is the 8th house completed out of 32 designed for the Houses at Sagaponac development in Sagaponack, Long Island, NY.

Can you describe your design process for the building?

Working closely with the original program - to design a modest weekend house near the beach with an artist studio and a series of outdoor spaces - the project takes its cue from the heavily wooded site. The house is composed of two distinct buildings, both of which rest upon a common stone plinth. The stone terrace between the two volumes functions similarly to the Renaissance double house, Villa Lante: the emptiness at the center of the Villa keeps activity - in short, living - as the focus of the house.

How does the completed building compare to the project as designed? Were there any dramatic changes between the two and/or lessons learned during construction?

The finished project is very close to the original conceptual design. Only the material and color palette was further refined during construction.

How does the building compare to other projects in your office, be it the same or other building types?

K/R has always been involved with projects of varying scale and type and consider there to be a lineage of ideas that function within the larger context of our work. For instance, the common terrace that separates the two buildings at Split House, is also evident in K/R's project for the Casa Pintada Museum, in Mula Spain.
The relationship between architecture and landscape has been investigated at multiple scales in our work: from single dwellings, like the Split House and Field House, to our master plan for Parque de Levante, a 100-acre riverfront public park in Murcia, Spain. Here, the architecture of a land bridge - the 'talud ' - provides a green connection over an existing highway that bisects the park.

E-Mail Interview conducted by John Hill