The Deceiving Qual Hill House

Qual Hill House is a contemporary 3,400-square-foot residence situated in Amagasett, New York, USA. A playful deception in the owners’ lives inspired Bates Masi Architects when creating this house. The clients, addicted to art, were drawn to Vik Muniz’s art, a new artist who got his inspiration from pictures of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The paintings were exquisite, but upon a closer look one could easily see that they were made of peanut butter and jelly, quite a deception.

The architects created a house that, admired from the driveway, features a gabled form, shingled siding and a massive chimney, resembling the traditional houses on eastern Long Island. Upon a closer look, the shingles are a woven screen made of oak survey stakes, and the ‘massive’ chimney is made of thin concrete panels. The ‘deception’ continues in the interior of the house as well, where the translucent stone wall that encloses the stair is in fact a double paned glass filled with seashells. But the tricks end when it comes to the double-height living-dining area, which is the perfect place for the family’s collection of large works of art. All in all the house is a piece of art playing with visual effects and human perception.