Studio Rick Joy combines tradition with lightness in New England
![Rick Joy Bayhouse](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/sqgJwYYtTe5upweAUqMLBF-415-80.jpeg)
The tonier parts of the American East Coast, grand houses and estates set in lush green or on rugged coastline, is the stuff of literary legend. In one particularly quiet New England bay, a recently completed private residence by the Tuscon-based architecture firm Studio Rick Joy cuts a distinctive figure with its contemporary interpretation of the region’s architectural tradition.
Situated just 150ft back from a private beach and orientated around the view of the curving bay, the studio’s single-storey creation is a statuesque refuge with a solid, white granite exterior. A sloping, trapezoidal roof lends it a commanding geometry, while also nodding to the local saltbox typology that was designed to withstand rain, wind and snow. The house’s stoic volume is punctuated by a series of recessed windows of mixed proportions and depths, which seem almost carved out of the stone. On the house’s south-eastern side, a screened-in porch, with retractable windows on two fronts, brings the stonemasonry indoors, creating a dynamic yet shielded bridge between the building and nature.
The house’s match of apparent simplicity with high ambition continues inside, as the interior converges on a large fireplace and towering 25ft chimney, made from the same white granite used outside. Two pyramid-shaped roof lanterns, lined in reflective copper and glass, flank the chimney at its pinnacle, creating light-filled airy volumes below. The living room is situated on one side of the fireplace, while the dining area and kitchen sit on the other, with door-height windows making the most of the ocean view. Long planks of Douglas fir form the flooring throughout, while grand matching timbers frame the ceiling above.
A white granite chimney divides the lofty main living space, flooded with light thanks to two giant roof lanterns lined with reflective copper. Hurricane-resistant windows look out across the bay, while the Douglas fir-lined ceiling is hung with a row of Lucifer spotlights.
‘We try to create work that relates to the local building culture. There are a lot of big roofs in different shapes here. The design started from wanting that height,’ says studio founder Rick Joy. ‘The house is an efficient, simple rectangle that hugs the landscape and is all on one level, to be practical. The intention was for it to blend with the traditional houses in the area. We followed the horizontal striping of neighbouring houses, but we decided to do it in granite.’
In comparison to the grandeur and openness of the living spaces, the more private part of the house – to the north-east, with three bedrooms, bathrooms and a gym – is a sheltered retreat. The rooms are laid out in a pinwheel configuration, and each is linked by a corridor that leads to a central gallery area – a consciously transitional space – where some of the clients’ photography and art collection is displayed, to be admired as residents and guests pass through.
‘I strive for an heirloom quality, so a house will be there in 200 years and still be loved’
The Bayhouse continues and refines the approach Joy has taken in past projects, such as the three-piece Desert Nomad House in Tucson, Arizona; the striated profile of the Amangiri resort in Canyon Point, Utah; and the gabled volumes of Woodstock Farm, Vermont. After several years of working away from the public eye, Joy recently celebrated the completion of the Princeton Transit Hall and Market in New Jersey, as well as the launch of Studio Joy Works (Princeton Architectural Press), a new monograph marking the 25th anniversary of his firm.
Born and raised in Maine and based full-time in Tucson, Joy’s knack for carving out monolithic structures that sit eloquently alongside stunning natural landscapes has little competition. ‘I don’t like to pretend that something is built by nature, like beavers made it or something. I like to assert the human quality of buildings,’ says Joy, who had to convince a historic preservation board when finalising the Bayhouse’s design. ‘To falsify a historic building really degrades the importance of the real ones. We live in our time and we should build in our time.’
The kitchen and dining room, with 28ft ceilings, Douglas fir floors, Frank Gehry dining chairs, Flos pendant lights and a custom kitchen island by Studio Rick Joy.
Despite the clarity of materials and the seemingly minimalist approach, Joy, together with design lead Matt Luck and designer Natalia Hayes, has filled the house with intentional flourishes. The perfectly stripped back stonemasonry possesses idiosyncratic gestures, such as gentle dips in the windowsills, and a series of precisely hewn granite steps that descend from one inset window. The slate shingled roof follows a computer-generated mathematical design to create its seemingly random formation.
Yet the house displays a deep-rooted functionality, too. The clients, a couple in their retirement years, can park beneath an integral cedar-lined car port adjacent to the gravel driveway, designed so that they will only ever need to drive forwards. A long bronze ballet barre provides additional support for them to walk to the front door, if needed. The door itself is extra-wide, allowing a wheelchair to manoeuvre its way easily. Such sensitivity also informs proportions within the house, from the generous entry foyer to the wide corridors and the doorways, while never breaking with the house’s overall aesthetic.
‘It’s really important to give far more than the brief says,’ reflects Joy. ‘This house has the intentional quality of being good to the clients, being for them. I dreamt about them living in the house. I strive for an heirloom quality, no matter what the budget is, so that a house will be there in 200 years, and it will still be loved.’
As originally featured in the January 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*238)
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Studio Rick Joy website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Pei-Ru Keh is a former US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru held various titles at Wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. She reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
Postcard from Paris: Olympic fever takes over the streets
On the eve of the opening ceremony of Paris 2024, our correspondent shares her views from the streets of the capital about how the event is impacting the urban landscape.
By Minako Norimatsu Published
-
IM Pei's Everson Museum of Art gets a modern makeover
The East Wing of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY has been given a contemporary refresh by emerging Los Angeles studio MILLIØNS
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Black Modernism’s lesser-known, at-risk architecture gems gain a lifeline
Conserving Black Modernism announces vital funding to save and preserve overlooked and endangered buildings by African American architects and designers
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Step into the Blanton Museum of Art's reimagined public realm by Snøhetta in Austin
Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas is completed and reveals its reimagined public realm and plaza designed by Snøhetta
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
This New York Townhouse renovation is a lesson in contemporary minimalism
TenBerke’s carefully considered New York townhouse is the reimagining of a century-old Manhattan structure that reframes vertical living
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Visit The Frost House, a lesser-known modernist architecture marvel in Michigan City
The Frost House is a lesser-known midcentury architecture gem in Michigan City, Indiana; we took the tour as the property goes on the market
By Audrey Henderson Published
-
Broadway designer Scott Pask’s Arizona retreat is a scene-stealing discovery
Scott Pask invites us inside his Arizona retreat, nestled in the foothills overlooking Tucson – a place to reboot, recharge and commune with nature
By Michael Webb Published
-
Upstate New York retreat Ridge House evokes land art
Ridge House in upstate New York, the work of Brooklyn-based studio Worrell Yeung, is at one with the surrounding countryside
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Rafael de Cárdenas’ first ground-up project is a forever home with waterfront views and hidden treasures
Rafael de Cárdenas reveals his latest completed project in the Pacific Northwest, a family home of calming spaces that bleed the outside in, and ten years in the making
By Ellie Stathaki Published