Shell House
The Shell House is a retreat home located in the Catskill Mountains. We were hired by a young NYC-based family to remodel the kitchen, entry foyer and HVAC system to accommodate contemporary living needs while maintaining the existing aesthetics and quirkiness of the shotcrete dome structure, both of which are beloved by our client. Operating within the unique spatial constraints of the dome’s oblate ellipsoid geometry, we developed a design strategy that opened up the kitchen floor plan and reoriented the room to alleviate problematic head clearance issues where the existing cabinetry intersected the doubly-curved walls. Borrowing from the dome’s sinuous lines, we created a series of soft-edged ‘island’ units, tethered by a horizontal countertop surface, to produce an overall spatial composition that organically wraps the curvilinear surfaces of the room. The curvaceous theme is then elaborated further in various details - the front door lites, kitchen drawer pulls and tile pattern.
Client: Private Client
Location: Roxbury, NY
Size: 1,000 SF Renovation
Status: Completed 2018
Honors & Awards:
2021 Dwell Design Awards Nominee
2020 AIA Chicago Small Projects Awards Citation of Merit
Publications:
Architectural Record, “Design Vanguard.” June 2021
Dwell, “Before & After: A New Kitchen Celebrates the Curves of a Dome-Shaped Home in New York.”
Dezeen, “DAAM revamps kitchen of dome-shaped Shell House in New York’s Catskills”
Archello
Chicago Architect, “Small Project Awards.” May/June 2020
The Shell House was originally designed in 1996 by architect Seymour Rutkin with consultation from the Monolithic Dome Institute. The house served as a prototype for Mr. Rutkin’s utopian vision for the new single-family home.
DAAM based the geometry of each island on the dimensional requirements of the kitchen equipment that they house as well as its orientation and proximity to the dome’s surface. We worked closely with both the Contractor and the Cabinetmaker in a collaborative process that entailed collecting a matrix of data from laser-shot field measurements and translating them into a digital model to negotiate the variable curvature of the dome’s surface, which was a bi-product of the original design and construction.
The entry island has a fluted wood surface that provides a sense of warmth and texture to the interior.
The tile pattern and cabinet doors pulls were inspired by the home’s ellipsoid dome geometry.
Contractor: Whritner Builders
Millwork Fabrication: Engels Cabinetshop
Tile: clé tile
Photography: Lydia White