Ephemeral Edge / Dean-Wolf Architects

Ephemeral Edge is a weekend retreat and retirement home located three hours north of New York City. As a retreat, the goal of the project was to contrasts the rapid sense of time and pressure of the city and extend the enjoyment and sensuousness of the everyday passage of time that is often highlighted in the open landscape. The sense of extended time is accomplished by taking advantage of the site—a forested hillside which contains a constructed pond and overlooks a distant view. The design is informed by four site conditions: the curving edge of the pond, the torqued banks necessary to construct the pond, the spindly edge of the forest clearing, and the quiet beauty of the distant view.