Dwell: The Box Outside

Excerpt from Dwell magazine September/October 2020

When Andrew Zuckerman and Niki Bergen decided to build a large guesthouse behind their home in upstate New York, they didn’t ask their designers for two bedrooms, two baths, or any of the other usual requirements. “We led with a narrative rather than a program,” says Andrew. He and Niki started sharing ideas and stories about what their lives could look like. “We showed them a picture of this old Japanese couple, like in their 80s, soaking at an onsen,” Andrew says, describing one of many reference images. “I showed them pictures of Pompeii and I said, ‘I want you to design this place backward, from it as a ruin. What is this building five hundred years from now? When everyone’s gone and the glass is blown out? What’s left? Let’s look at that.’”

The designers, David Leven and Stella Betts of New York City studio Levenbetts, were more than game. Longtime friends of the homeowners Leven and Betts had designed their primary house on the site back in 2007—their first residential commission—and they were happy to have such an open-ended follow-up.