Hudson Concrete House by Koko Designed as Art-Filled Escape

Koko Architecture + Design created an art-filled home for its collector owner, incorporating Japanese influences and a courtyard at the peak of a mountain in New York.

The team at Koko opted to use a recently unveiled plot in the Hudson River Valley.

The design responds to a specific site the owners acquired through a bespoke real estate search.

“Located on the historic Mount Merino highland near Hudson, New York, the house responds to the natural topography of the site, following its cascading grade,” said the studio.

The most noteworthy geographical feature of the plot is a raised site containing a courtyard enclosed within the building’s L-shaped massing.

“The main house is completed by the substantially sized inner courtyard on the east end that evokes traditional Japanese architecture,” said the studio.

Pandas and bluestone benches were designed across the courtyard as objects within the enclosed space to “reference Eastern-inspired meandering zen gardens”.

The interior spaces are arranged around the courtyard and a central staircase that lets in a fair amount of diffuse light.

The spaces on the ground floor and basement, including the garage and an additional galley kitchen, are connected via a shared thoroughfare and feature some public-facing spaces on the south end of the L-shape, and desks, studio and storage rooms on the north end.

The studio organized an open plan for the rest of the primary living areas on the second floor, with minimalistic interiors, including seating areas with exposed ceilings and isalge kitchen.

Bedrooms and bathrooms were included on the first, second and third floors.

The team utilized a number of natural materials throughout the subdued interiors, many of which were left exposed, and said that “timber framed barn structures” influenced the use of the wood beams.

“The design client’s aesthetic appreciation for Brutalism and Minimalism resulted in the implementation of exposed wooden boards for a rough texture alternating with a smooth finish of the monolithic concrete structure,” said the studio.

Additionally, the studio added pieces from the owner’s collection throughout the buildings, including “paintings, photographs, pre-Columbian artefacts and wooden sculptures”.

A number of the pieces were commissioned specifically for the new space, such as “wooden objects by a contemporary sculptor and art installations by a multimedia artist” designed for the interior courtyard.