Field House: Birdseye - Masterpiece Series

A striking addition to the Birdseye Masterpiece series celebrating sustainable and innovative rural modernism.

Field House showcases a distinctive Rhode Island residence designed by the award-winning Vermont architecture and building firm Birdseye. Fronted by an open meadow and otherwise surrounded by a deciduous forested hillside, the minimalistic design of the home engages the landscape and is an exercise of contrasts.

Featuring an introduction by the renowned architecture critic Aaron Betsky as well as in-depth analysis, sumptuous photographic documentation and detailed plans and diagrams, this volume explores every stage of the design and building process, from its conception to the stunning end result. It thus offers valuable insight into how an award-winning residence like Field House came into being, showing how brilliant design, thoughtful landscaping and a harmonious philosophy can come together to create a subtle architectural masterpiece.

The residence is composed of two separate gable volumes: a two-story main house and a one-story garage, knitted together with a perpendicular exterior walkway buttressed with an intermittent full-height site wall.

Aaron Betsky is Director of the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech. Previously, he was President of the School of Architecture at Taliesin. A critic of art, architecture, and design, Mr. Betsky is the author of over twenty books on those subjects. He writes a twice-weekly blog for architectmagazine.com, Beyond Buildings.

Trained as an architect and in the humanities at Yale University, Mr. Betsky has served as the Director of the Cincinnati Art Museum (2006-2014) and the Netherlands Architecture Institute (2001-2006), as well as Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1995-2001). In 2008, he also directed the 11th Venice International Biennale of Architecture.

His latest books are Fifty Lessons from Frank Lloyd Wright (2021), Making It Modern (2019) and Architecture Matters (2019). His Anarchitecture: The Monster Leviathan will be published by The MIT Press in 2022.

Brian J. Mac Attended school at the University of Detroit and in Florence/Volterra, Italy. Majored with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1988. Was inducted into the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows in 2018. Was inducted into the New England Design Hall of Fame in 2018. Previously employed at Quinn/Evans Architects in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he grew up in metro Detroit, Michigan and has lived in Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Italy and Vermont. Architectural inspirations include LeCorbusier, FLW, Sir David Adjaye, Hans Wegner and Zaha Hadid.

BIRDSEYE These words resonate with us at Birdseye. We are both inspired by and drawn to the natural surroundings of our Vermont landscape. This place is marked by the agrarian pursuits of the past and present, preserved in the living history of the buildings and the land. Timber frame bank barns with high drives and cupolas, milk houses, corn cribs, silos, farmhouses, and woodsheds. Rolling fields, walls of stone, tree lined roads, farmyards, and mountain vistas. This physical history provides context for our existence and is reflected in our practice. Our design paradigm represents a continued evaluation and refinement in the essential, rooted in the building tradition of place, as well as in the cultural history of our company and its people. Birdseye is a unique balance of innovation and tradition. We create beautiful homes to the highest standards of design and craft.

We are architects, builders, wood workers, metal workers, and machinery operators. James Moore McCown is a Boston-based architectural journalist who writes for numerous design publications including Metropolis, Architect’s Newspaper and AD PRO Architectural Digest. He has collaborated with Oscar Riera Ojeda on several books including the Architecture in Detail series which comprised four volumes: Elements, Materials, Colors and Spaces. McCown studied journalism at Loyola University New Orleans and holds an ALM (Master’s Degree) in the history of art and architecture from Harvard University, where his thesis on modern Brazilian architecture received an Honorable Mention, Dean’s Award, Best ALM Thesis (2007). He lives in Newton, Massachusetts. Michael Moran I was born in California but spent most of my childhood overseas, in Burma, Turkey, Colombia and Pakistan. My father was an engineering geologist who worked on hydroelectric dams.

We eventually returned to California, where I studied biology and sculpture at the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara. My first job out of college was working on the design and fabrication of a diorama at the Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara, where I developed a fascination with the analysis and presentation of information. I decided to study exhibition design but applied to graduate programs in architecture as well, thinking that an architectural education would provide a strong design foundation. I received a MArch from UCLA in 1982. While in graduate school I worked part time in the studio of Frank Gehry, and I continued working there full time after I graduated. While in Gehry’s studio I was asked, with no prior experience, to photograph the models I was making. I discovered an aptitude and a joy in this work and quickly taught myself photography. With Gehry’s encouragement, I began to photograph buildings in construction, then the completed buildings. I bought a large format camera and was soon taking photographs that were published in the architectural press worldwide, even as I continued (with diminishing enthusiasm) to work as an architect.

In 1985 I moved to New York City to begin a full-time practice in architectural photography. I’ve been fortunate to work with many talented architects, designers, and editors. My relationship with Toshio Nakamora of A+U began with his publication of my photographs of Gehry’s work. We collaborated on books on New York architecture of the 20th Century and Philip Johnson’s Glass House. I photographed the work of Roberto Burle Marx for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, and have published books on the work of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, John Johansen, and Rafael Moneo.

Oscar Riera Ojeda is an editor and designer based in the US, China, and Argentina. Born in 1966, in Buenos Aires, he moved to the United States in 1990. Since then he has published over two hundred books, assembling a remarkable body of work notable for its thoroughness of content, timeless character, and sophisticated and innovative craftsmanship.

Oscar Riera Ojeda’s books have been published by many prestigious publishing houses across the world, including Birkh user, Byggf rlaget, The Monacelli Press, Gustavo Gili, Thames & Hudson, Rizzoli, Damiani, Page One, ORO editions, Whitney Library of Design, and Taschen. Oscar Riera Ojeda is also the creator of numerous architectural book series, including Ten Houses, Contemporary World Architects, The New American House and The New American Apartment, Architecture in Detail, and Single Building. His work has received many international awards, in-depth reviews, and citations. He is a regular contributor and consultant for several publications in the field.