HOUSE BY ANDREW BERMAN

Built on an existing residential plot, Andrew Berman designed a library that is positioned deep on the property, and tucked back into the woods.

The 2008 film Revolutionary Road is a vivid portrait of post-war suburban American life, which simultaneously explores the acceptable social values of the time. And while America’s cultural climate has changed much since the 1950’s, its view on its neighborhoods’ architecture has not. In the American suburb, traditionalism reins supreme. Long Island, NY recently broke free from this mold, with the addition of a private library for a young couple firmly rooted in the tradition of today.

Built on an existing residential plot, ‘the library is positioned deep on the property, and tucked back into the woods’ illustrates architect Andrew Berman. ‘It’s visible from the road, but still recedes into its site.’ The 150 square meter building contains no more than needed; a gardening room, a bath, a kitchen and the library. Framed in steel, finished in wood and clad in copper – which reflects the surrounding trees – the library effortlessly disappears in its surroundings.
In the past, ‘people built large buildings on Long Island; over-scaled to communities’ traditional scale - this library goes back to what that scale used to be’ explains Berman. Greeted by a red three-meter tall door at entry, beyond small and complex, the library’s volume and shape is hard to define. Not quite a trapezoid and not quite a cone, the ever-folding envelope is highly influenced by the first floor’s cantilever, which projects through to the trees beyond - a view framed by an expansive picture window that occupies much of the cantilevered façade.

While the library parallels Revolutionary Road in its desire to explore social values of the past, the library is one thing the film will never be. Firmly rooted in the ideas and traditions of today.