Stingray Beach House | uros novakovic

Situated between the Hamptons and Montauk, the house is a design study for a New York based Art Collector and Business woman. It takes the name from its shape, which resembles a stingray when seen from the sky

The passion of the owner for Brutalist and Minimalist architecture and a need for a retreat situated on the beach, with beautiful views of the ocean, where to share time with her friends and family, were the motives that guided the project.

The possibility to build directly on the dunes bordering the beach, with the ocean view south oriented, gave a great opportunity to protrude the entire house from the dunes towards the ocean.

The house is divided into 3 functional blocks. In the middle is the public block with living, dining and kitchen organized in a triangular open plan. This is a huge open space where great number of people can gather while conducting different activities. On the west side, to minimize the morning light, is the private block of the owner, with the master bedroom and a studio. On the east side are 3 bedrooms for the guests. Each block is heavily oriented towards the ocean. All 3 sections are connected with 2 patios. One private underground on the north side, and one opened to the beach on the south side.

The concrete structure is exposed both on the outside and on the inside, leaving the lumber concrete form tiles on display. Concentric beams, anchored on the north side to the ground, support the sloped roofs of each section of the house and extend beyond the roof to host a sun-shading system in concrete as well.

The middle, public section, is hierarchically higher and has a swimming pool on its top. The idea to introduce a swimming pool in the project came later, and because the impossibility to use more terrain on the lot, the sloped roof gave a great opportunity to place the pool on the roof making it a striking design feature of the house while also providing natural insulation layer. Part of the pool bottom is made of glass. Light filtered by the water can enter the deepest part of the public block and give spectacular lighting effects under the sunlight. The roofs of the private blocks serve as decks for sunbathing and as access to the pool through stairs that connect the back patio and the roofs.

The north side of the building hosts an enclosed underground patio which is also the arrival point to the house. The north walls and openings, below the dunes level, are minimized to prevent winter cold winds from the north.