Watermill House | OA Office of Architecture

When our clients approached us to discuss the feasibility of designing a 6000 square foot house in Southampton, New York, our immediate concern was that the lot – located in a FEMA floodplain, on a property that is approximately 50% unbuildable wetlands – wouldn’t deliver the square footage or the living spaces required to create a ‘Hamptons Home’. Rather than fight the constraints imposed by the land, we saw this as an opportunity to capture a variety of spaces that could exist under, over, and between the building and the landscape.

Three zinc-clad volumes – the Public wing, the Guest wing, and the Family wing – elevate all the heated areas and critical infrastructure above the floodplain. These volumes organize the primary indoor areas such as living rooms, bedrooms, baths and mechanical rooms, while interstitial spaces between the house and ground foster a series of outdoor rooms including a carport, a courtyard, a pool pavilion, a terrarium, and roof terraces. 

Credits:

Architect: Office of Architecture: Aniket Shahane, Principal;
Team: Ivan Kostic, Valentin Bansac, Stephen Maher, Tristan Walker, Eddie Simpson, Joshua Eager

Photography: Rafael Gamo

Contractor: Aran Construction

Structural Engineer: Blue Sky Design

MEP: Atieri Siebor Wieber

Landscape: Summerhill Landscapes

Pool: Pristine Pools

Interiors: Friedman Moore

Styling: Sophie Yanacopoulos-Gross

Design Collaborator: Asheshh Saheba