FEATURES

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The simple shape recalls the days when Hamptons beach houses weren't much more complicated than the barns that inspired them. Because long rectangles divide neatly into zones, the great room feels like a series of spaces, though it's entirely open. The kitchen is at the center, and there is no formal dining room or living room.

"This is a beach house," the wife notes. "I didn't need them and I didn't want them." During the summertime, the family eats on the screened porch, which Billinkoff put off to one side, so that it doesn't block views from the great room all winter.

Below the great room is a media room where the family gathers for evening entertainment. The same stairway that connects the first and second floors continues downstairs, acting as a central circulation core. "The result of the open stair is that you don't feel like you're descending into the basement," Billinkoff comments.

Initially, the couple had hoped to avoid air conditioning, and Billinkoff provided cross breezes by putting windows on both sides of the long facades. Eventually, a geothermal air-conditioning system, in which water circulating through underground pipes transfers heat from the home deep into the earth, was installed for summer's scorchers. Though the system was expensive, they received a large subsidy from Long Island Power Authority. Even better, no outdoor compressor was required for the geothermal system. "The whole thing is in the basement, and it's silent," the wife explains. "Ironically, I can hear my neighbors' air conditioners, but I can never hear my own."