Northwest Woods Residence is a 6,400-square-foot MODERN MODULAR home in East Hampton, New York, designed for a young family of five and extended family visiting from abroad. The project explores how the dimensional and production constraints of off-site construction can support highly customized residential architecture rather than prescribe a standardized result.
The house is composed of ten prefabricated modules, set on site in two days. Their arrangement establishes a series of interconnected indoor and outdoor spaces organized around privacy, daylight, family life, and the wooded setting. At the arrival court, second-floor modules span above the drive to form a covered carport and define the entrance. Elsewhere, spanning volumes create shaded outdoor rooms, while terraces and roof decks extend living spaces beyond the building envelope. Cedar slat screens moderate views between arrival, living, and pool areas without severing their relationship to the landscape.
Inside, floor-to-ceiling glazing along the principal living spaces establishes visual connections through the house to the surrounding woods and links the kitchen, dining, and living areas directly to the pool terrace and covered decks. A three-story stair combines glass, walnut slats, steel, and integrated seating, bringing daylight deep into the house while acting as a vertical organizing element. Custom millwork throughout provides storage while maintaining the clarity of the open living spaces.
The modular construction system therefore operates as a framework rather than an architectural style: repetitive factory-built volumes are combined, spanned, screened, and opened to produce varied spatial conditions tailored to the site and program. The project reflects RES4's continuing investigation into how prefabrication can combine the coordination and precision of off-site construction with the specificity expected of custom residential architecture.
Environmental measures include a rooftop photovoltaic array, a high-performance building envelope, and energy-efficient equipment and appliances intended to reduce operational energy demand.
