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ARCHITECT DONALD BILLINKOFF USES ZONING RESTRICTIONS TO HIS ADVANTAGE IN AN AMAGANSETT HOME

Donald Billinkoff doesn't fight constraints. He welcomes them. Like many good architects, Billinkoff knows that restrictions can make buildings better by inspiring creative solutions.

Just look at this house in Amagansett. His clients, a couple with four children, bought property in an area zoned for agricultural use. A narrow strip on Town Lane (containing four two-acre lots) were set aside for future homes, one of which is where his clients now reside on most weekends.

"It didn't cramp our style," the wife says of the restrictions. "It actually made for a better neighborhood, because we're all looking at the view instead of at each other's houses." That includes farmland and (in the far distance) the ocean—vistas that, because of the zoning restrictions, will remain forever.

The strip of land also suggested a shape for the house: a rectangle nearly five times as long as it is wide. That, in turn, helped Billinkoff solve a practical problem: The couple wanted their children, ages 12 to 18, to have equivalent bedrooms—right down to the sweeping views. Within the long rectangle, the architect arranged the rooms along an upstairs hallway—all facing south through identical square windows.

Though the house is big—7,000 square feet—it's unpretentious.