Fire Island Beach Home by Fred Stelle Coastal Living

Fire Island Beach Home by Fred Stelle
Coastal Living

The Fire Island beach home of Brooklyn residents Noel and Ellen Berk-Rauch was featured in Coastal Living magazine — the story focused on architect Fred Stelle's use of super-durable building materials that would last a long time with extreme weather conditions...

Though the design is simple, the construction process was one of the most difficult parts of implementing the design — Fire Island is inaccessible by cars and trucks and all the building materials had to be delivered by ferry and golf cart!

To withstand the hot sun, salty air and windy winters, the house is framed with extra durable Finnish cedar and super tough Chinese bamboo floors. The exterior is also cedar and the home has a concrete roof (cast to look like tin!).

Check out more pictures at Coastal Living | Simply Sustainable.

Via: materialicious

(Images: Jeff McNamara)

Comments (10)

And they're finishing it...???

posted by GreatFriend on July 24th 2009 at 12:00pm
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it's been finished for 7 years! remember it is SIMPLE. i love the look!

posted by Aaron on July 24th 2009 at 12:07pm
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...when you spend money on great long-lasting materials like Finnish Cedar, you want to enjoy it!

posted by Aaron on July 24th 2009 at 12:08pm
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beautiful material. lousy detail.

posted by Seaside on July 24th 2009 at 12:20pm
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Fire Island is hard to explain, but this is perfect.

I'm going back next week and I can't wait!

At it's best it's almost the opposite of the Hamptons.

Whatever you bring in, is on your back.
Pretense and artifice are heavy.

posted by stt64 on July 24th 2009 at 12:35pm
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huh
so I guess no one lives there in the winter? Cause it aint insulated...

But it is beautiful.

posted by msjessiemeghan on July 24th 2009 at 1:29pm
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I just visited Fire Island for the first time a week ago. It is hard to imagine how they built the house, with all the schlepping they had to do, but I think the house has a lot of charm and fits right into the relaxed feeling of Fire Island.

posted by Doris loves art! on July 24th 2009 at 2:11pm
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The sitting area looks really cramped and overcrowded, yet there is clearly loads of available floorspace

posted by idontdobeige on July 25th 2009 at 9:02am
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I was wondering about the weight of a concrete roof and their method of casting. Is concrete roofing expensive and what type of maintainance has to be done on it?

posted by swandiver on July 26th 2009 at 1:40am
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It's beautiful. It does look unfinished, but in a finished way. Like bedhead that takes two hours to get perfect, only much less annoying. I love the orange color in the kitchen and that shot of the bedroom is just so lovely.

posted by shlowzi on July 26th 2009 at 9:02pm
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