On New York’s Shelter Island, a quiet and stately home lies at the cusp of the area’s interlacing tidal creeks, woodlands, and marshes of Marshomack Preserve. The Osprey House designed by Desai Chia Architecture was built for a local contractor and his family. The two-story home is perched up high above the marshland, a nod to how native ospreys have made their nests in the telephone poles and treetops nearby. But the home is informed by the local birds in more than just the site, avians also inform the residence’s materials, organization, light, details, and of course, its facade. Clad in vertical slats of gray cypress, charred through the shou sugi ban method, the Osprey House is aptly bird blind, minimizes visual noise for neighbors along the coast, and helps encourage wildlife to occupy the lot. Conceptually and visually, the home connects to its surroundings.
The home is located on the edge of Mashomack, a 2,039-acre coastal nature reserve. This guided, as well as challenged, the structure’s relationship to the land. Desai Chia’s cofounding principal Arjun Desai shared with AN Interior, “The home’s construction could not significantly impact the site, meaning that earthwork, tree removal, and brush clearing had to be minimal. We were also focusing on having a minimal footprint on the land. In the end, these restrictions ensured that the home felt deeply embedded in its context.”
The 3,700-square-foot structure was designed to frame the land, even from the inside. As such, Desai Chia applied an “upside down” layout—upending the conventional layout of first floor for communal space and second floor allocated for private living quarters. In Osprey House, the layout was inverted to house all social areas on the second floor. Desai elaborated, “The gathering spaces also benefit from the dramatic roof forms, vaulted ceilings, and the material warmth and texture of the exposed structure.”
The interiors of the home illuminate a sense of calmness, mirroring the surrounding nature. The shou sugi ban facade is brought indoors throughout the stairwell, kitchen, hallways, and other social gathering areas. The slats of soft gray bring texture and a hint of warmth to the otherwise sparse interior, while creating connection to the outdoors. It’s met with light European white oak floors, and on the second floor, the two wooden elements join with beams of vertical grain white oak veneer plywood panels on the ceiling, adding warmth to the cool undertones within the interiors.
The neutral language continues in the kitchen where the cabinets and appliances are clad in a clean light gray grid, drawing connection to the facade. At the center of it all is the kitchen island, a cast piece that exhibits strong angles, drawing connection to the home’s rectilinear architecture. The island’s strong diagonal indentation allows for a sharp black shadow to be formed within the negative space, drawing interest in this otherwise relatively quiet island.
It’s here the architects also inserted clerestory windows where the slanted roofs meet, providing unexpected light in the kitchen and media rooms. Katherine Chia, cofounding principal of Desai Chia, shared with AN Interior, “The media room, also on the second floor, has a vertical north-facing window that stretches up to capture the height of the trees. This dramatic portal seemingly extends past the ceiling, and opens the room to a curated moment of northern light. This opening is a critical moment of verticality on the exterior, as well. It visually balances the roof geometries, and provides a moment of upwards expansion along the facade.”
“We love finding opportunities to create architecturally diverse experiences for our clients that give them new ways to experience the genus loci of a place,” Chia continued. Desai Chia’s design of the Osprey House effortlessly connects architecture to nature. This project allows the family to create a peaceful nest. It’s likely the ospreys approve.