This Montauk Beach House, Reminiscent of the Salk Institute, Blends Naturally With the Shore

This beach house, designed on the shores of Montauk by John Pawson, is anything but flashy. Instead, the goal was to blend the building with its surroundings–“to engage naturally with the flow of the dune,” as Pawson put it. It’s almost reminiscent of the Salk Institute, a complex designed by Louis Kahn in La Jolla, California that powerfully engages with the Pacific Ocean. Here, the home barely peeks above all the beachfront brush surrounding the Atlantic. And from the interior, numerous decks look like they’re extending naturally into the sand. This is the type of getaway that’ll really make you feel one with nature.

Pawson explains the location of the home like this: “The volume of this house on the Atlantic shore is pulled north, away from the ocean and towards a small valley running along the west side of the plot.” The effect, then, is that of a hideaway beach house right off the shore.

The interior is hardly flashy and continues with the theme of opening the house up to its surroundings. Floor-to-ceiling windows create picture-perfect views of the beach, and also make it seem like the outside patio comes right inside the home.

Even the pool looks like an extension of the beach, surrounded by its own boardwalk.

The materials were picked to reflect the home’s surroundings: the walls were finished with a sandy-looking plaster, and the decks were made from a silvered ipe that was chosen because it resembled driftwood.

It’s obvious that outdoor space is crucial to this design; there are decks on both the lower and upper levels of the home. Pawson explains that “a series of pristine vertical planes rises from the upper deck, framing space and views and providing a powerful counterpoint to the structure’s low horizontal mass.” Well, who could argue with that view of the shore, stretching out in front of you, from the top of a gorgeous beach home? Such a striking landscape calls for the graceful, contextual design that John Pawson ultimately pulled off.

[Montauk House by John Pawson]

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All photos courtesy of John Pawson