THIS HAMPTONS MODERNIST GEM CAN BE YOURS (TEMPORARILY) THIS SUMMER!

This little gem of a beach house is a simple cypress box, beautifully sited in Amagansett, Long Island in the Hamptons. It belongs to my old pal, author Joe Dolce.

After 40 years of withstanding the weather and wear and tear, it needed an update so, Dolce and hired the original architect to do the renovation. Harry Bates designed the house in ’67 for a young family. (It was in a 1970 issue of House Beautiful and after the update, it was featured on the cover of Dwell in April of ’09) 

The original architect had worked with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in NYC for many years before leaving to start his own practice. The house is one of many he designed throughout Long Island. Paul Masi —who served as the project architect for the renovation and who was key in maintaining the integrity of the original design—became a partner in Bates’s firm in 1998.

Dolce wanted to slightly expand, update the mod-cons –as they say– and reorient an awkward staircase that had replaced the original spiral one. Reusing material made the update almost invisible. They reused all 12-inch cypress boards from the old deck and former south-facing wall. I’ve known Joe for decades and stayed here a couple of summers ago. I didn’t know the details of the update and had no idea as the extent of the renovation. It looks like they just updated the kitchen and bathroom, but SO much more was done. Says Dolce,

“You have no idea what it looked like! 

You have all sorts of possibilities for voyeurism in this house, which is exciting—depending on who your guests are… But usually it’s just my mother.”

This property is really secluded, just steps from private beaches and Napeague Bayand minutes from Atlantic Ocean beaches. It’s a really special place in a superb location, close to an organic farm with great proximity to swimming, kayaking, cycling and off-road trails plus wireless, Netflix and chill, etc. Perfect for a couple (with great taste) or a small family.

But by Hampton’s mega-mansion standards, at 1400 square feet, this is really guest-house size, which is perfect, because YOU can be the guest! It has 3 Bedrooms and sleeps 5, with 2 Bathrooms, a half bath with a sexy outdoor shower. It’s nestled in the woods and you can rent it THIS summer. It’s $3000 a week in June, $4000 in July and $5000 in peak-season August. You can rent it for a whole month or even the whole summer, if you jump on it now. Find out availability and details on VRBO here.

CASA BRUTALE IS A 21ST CENTURY BOND VILLIAN PAD

Intended as a sideways wink to the infamous Casa Malaparte on the eastern side of the Italian island of Capri, Casa Brutale is an unbuilt and innovative wood, glass, and concrete design that converges with the surrounding earth offering amazing views of the Aegean from its cliffside perch. A glass-bottom swimming pool on the roof is a poetic continuation of the blue sky and sea. This liquid design element also functions as a skylight that illuminates the minimalist interiors below which feature a massive glass facade that will someday frame the beauty of the ocean views, if it ever gets built. Fifty steps lead down to the entrance — an rotating door of vintage wood — while the bare concrete and wooden planks of the interior are a nod to the the brutalist movement. It’s 21st century Bond. Just add helicopter and a Tesla, a Rothko, Dom and a sexy companion. I know, you can already see the demise of our villain as Bond flies away in the helicopter with the girl, and fires a parting shot into the pool…

WHEN IS A BOULDER NOT A BOULDER BUT A BOLD BUILDING?

Every year since 2000 a chosen architect designs a folly pavilion that is erected near the Serpentine Galleryin Hyde Park in London. (Photographer Iwan Baan has photographed many if not all) Architect Smiljan Radic’s pavilion opened there last summer and after its run, the Radic Pavilion was carefully carved up, reinstalled in art gallery Hauser & Wirth’s outpost in the english countryside in Somerset. The views out of of the great curved openings in the elevated structure are beautiful and just eight months after opening there have already been some 90,000 visitors, more than double what they estimated. The Radic Pavilion has perhaps the happiest afterlife of any Serpentine structure. While the majority of the 15 pavilions created for the London gallery are in long-term storage, other structures will never exceed their trumpeted debuts in Kensington Gardens, this pebble-like folly will likely be intriguing and engaging visitors for decades to come.

THIS TREEHOUSE APARTMENT COMPLEX IN TURIN ISN'T KIDSTUFF

Treehouses are supposed to be kid territory. But we’ve been seeing enlarged backyard and woodland versions more and more. But this treehouse apartment complex in Turin, Italy by architect Luciano Pia, is called 25 Verde. That translates to “25 Green” at it stands five stories tall with 63 apartments. Pia integrated about 150 trees into 25 Verde’s eco-friendly design which means less pollution and noise for its inhabitants. The trees absorb the harmful toxins in the air and even create a “microclimate” making the apartments cooler during the summer and warmer during the winter. Ventilated walls allow sunlight to stream in during the day time and tree foliage provides protection from the harsh sun. Not exactly like living in a tree but a lot more fun that a sheetrock box.

13 AMAZING DESIGNS FOR A NEW LONDON BRIDGE

London Bridge is being built, not falling down. Well, not THAT London Bridge but a new one from Nine Elms to Pimlico. Hundreds of submissions from around the world poured in for this bridge competition in London and of 74 imaginative, striking, and offbeat designs were selected to advance to the next round of eliminations. I’ve culled those down to a baker’s dozen. The pedestrian bridge will connect two growing neighborhoods on opposite sides of the Thames. The designs will be judged by the people who know the area best —a panel of residents. Submissions from up to four teams will be shortlisted for the next round of competition, where they will further detail their concepts. The council plans to announce the panel’s decision—and the chosen contestants—later this month. I vote for the waterfall bridge, which must use the river water in circulation. To see the rest of of the designs, go here. 

ROTTERDAM'S MARKTHAL HAS A BIG CORNUCOPIA

The enormous Markthal Rotterdam, an open market building, has this amazing 36,000 square foot mural covering its rounded ceiling. The mural, by artists Arno Coenen and Iris Roskam, “Cornucopia”, features fruit, vegetables, and market goods rising into the sky like cathedral mural. The building, designed by MVRDV, features an open food market with 100 fresh produce units, 15 food shops and 8 restaurants with 228 apartments and 1,200 parking spaces, making the entire structure somewhat of a self-contained universe. It expects 5 to 7 million visitors a year.

NYC GETS A NEW PYRAMID

Starchitect Bjarke Ingels’ W57 is getting pretty exciting the higher it grows. Photographer Iwan Baan took this aerial view below just last week. Ingels describes the structure like this;

“The Durst pyramid and the maze have something geometrically in common in that all the cross-sections of the pyramid are straight lines but it describes a hyperbolic paraboloid. Here all the cross-sections that you can see are perfectly straight lines but as a result, you almost describe these arches. It is a cone that has been subtracted from a cube. It’s this weird combination of something that is actually straight lines that then describes these curving geometries. Maybe we do have certain obsessions we can’t escape no matter what we do.”

OK. It’s certainly an odd location on West 57 and the river, right as the ramp enters the West Side Highway, backed by a giant Con Ed transfer station but the site-specific design responds on all sides. It’s rental on top, with retail at the base, so it will be interesting to see what it does to street life in the area. Right now even driving by it is exciting. 

(Bottom photo, Iwan Baan; via Curbed)