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Friday, January 16th, 2009

Fergus McShane shares the sad story behind one of our favourite weekend retreats in upstate New York.

VilLA NM is a family getaway that was designed and built over a seven-year period, ultimately reaching completion in 2007. Built by Dutch architecture practice UN Studio, this looked like a home with a big future, but sadly following a fire a few months ago Spaces was told that we would have to make our feature on the project a retrospective one.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel with UN Studios and the client planning to rebuild VilLA NM in the near future. Good news indeed, and it may even lead to a few tweaks to the design, which could make this already high quality residence even more impressive.

Putting aside the current turmoil that surrounds the house, VilLA NM still represents a skilfully produced conceptual and natural piece of architectural design. The success of the project is reflected in UN Studio being commissioned to firstly remake VilLA NM, and secondly to team up with the client for another build.

The rest of this feature can be read n Spaces issue 31.