A Mix of All Architecture Styles Under One Roof

[caption id="attachment_2374" align="alignleft" width="377" caption="East Hampton Property"][/caption]

Architecture comes in many different styles: Malaysian, Spanish, English-Cottage, Suburban, etc. So when architects Phil Smith and Doug Thompson were contemplating the style of their East Hampton property, they decided to mix all the styles together. The Wall Street Journal discusses further as they explore this unique property.

A pool house often ends up being an afterthought—a reiteration of the main house, only smaller. But it can also be an independent vision where new ideas get tested out first.

Architect Phil Smith and his partner, Doug Thompson, took the latter approach. "We wanted to build a retreat, a tree house, a place for quiet time, to escape," said Mr. Smith of the unusual 200-square-foot pool house at the back of their East Hampton, N.Y., property. "This is not really a typical pool house," said Mr. Thompson. "It's more like a tea house or a garden folly."

Without much space to work with—a narrow site between the pre-existing swimming pool and back property line, and a roof height determined by a "pyramid law"—the architects looked to the traditional stilt Kampong houses they had seen in Malaysia while traveling after graduate school. They made their pool house a two-story structure with a small living/meditation room upstairs and an outdoor dining/sitting area downstairs. This was back in 1989.

Work proceeded in slow—very slow—increments, as the designers couldn't afford to build the entire structure at once. They began with two freestanding concrete walls that helped define the pool area and enhance privacy. In 1992, they added a steel arbor painted white—something like a skeleton of the pool house to come—and planted it with grape vines for shade. In 2000, they vacationed in Tulum, Mexico, and were intrigued by how the indigenous houses used ventanas de persiana, adjustable cedar shutters with simple brass mechanisms to open or close horizontal slats against sun and rain. They decided to use these to enclose the upper floor of their pool house.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

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