Anmahian Winton Architects’ Red Rock House Is a Minimalist Berkshires Retreat
Plenty of New Yorkers have already begun weekend trips up to their second homes in the Berkshires, but once the snow starts falling all the winter-loving urbanites will really start making an exodus. And this estate in Red Rock, New York couldn’t be any more perfect for a festive getaway.
The work of Anmahian Winton Architects, the Red Rock House is a property made up of the main one-bedroom house and a combined guest house/garage. It’s situated on a densely wooded, 16-acre site and was designed to work with the existing topography, taking advantage of the landscape, views, and daylight.
The architects took a “machine in the garden” approach to the home design, using contemporary, minimal forms to underscore the relationship between built structures and natural landscape. Anmahian Winton worked closely with Cambridge-based landscape architects Reed-Hilderbrand on sustainable foresting and preservation, as well as on the garden terraces and architectural landscape walls.
A 200-foot concrete retaining wall runs north to south along the east edge of the site, creating a new plateau for the homes, garden, and meadow. The guest house clings to the wall and overlooks the garden terrace, while the main house projects out from and opens up to the forest. The two structures are connected by a linear bluestone path, which also leads to the west balcony in the treetops that affords views of the creek below.
Both buildings are clad in knotty western red cedar boards that act as high-performance rain screens and were milled with multiple profiles to generate a pattern that changes with the movement of the sun. The boards lie within vertical bays outlined by aluminum T-sections, creating a lively, textured rhythm. The entrances are marked by aluminum lattice volumes, which also provide shade for the interior spaces.
Inside, the walls are entirely white, providing a perfect backdrop for the homeowners’ collection of art and letting the play of light and landscape stand in as artworks in their own right.
See more work from Anmahian Winton Architects here.
Photos © Jane Messinger
