Hither Hills in Montauk sits at the furthest end of Long Island, blissfully removed from the stresses of urban life and open towards the calming expanses of the ocean. It is here, in an idyllic, sloped site facing the water, that New York architect Robert Young was called upon to create a holiday home for a family living in the city. The result is a unmistakably contemporary, but open and relaxing retreat that appears to cascade into its green surrounds.
A Hither Hills house embedded in its context
Embedding the structure into the site, the architects worked with charred Shou-Sugi-Ban timber exteriors, broken down in smaller, rectangular volumes to better fit into their natural surroundings. This way, the home's generous size, spanning three levels, is cleverly concealed from the street frontage – where the Hither Hills house presents as a fairly low-slung, single-storey pavilion. At the same time, with this material palette, the team nods to the wider region's local vernacular of timber structures – and a green roof helps it all merge further into the landscape.
Young, whose practice has offices in New York and nearby Montauk, worked with design specialist Meyer Davis on the interiors. The relationship between inside and outside is emphasised through the journey into the retreat by clean surfaces and large openings that draw the eye towards the green vistas and the blue waters beyond. The facade's Delta Millworks darkened natural cedar cladding is swapped for minimalist white walls inside, complemented by dark accents and contemporary furniture throughout in this welcoming and site-specific year-round family getaway.
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