Tour Casa Cometa: An Architectural Masterpiece With A Rock At Its Core

The Vision for the Rock

Originally from Switzerland, the owner wanted to find a sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of the city where his family can connect with nature. He had two main things in mind when searching for the perfect piece of land – a rock and a view. Wanting to ground both the design and the energy of the home in a natural element, he knew when he saw this large rock on top of the quarry that this was the spot.

The rock captures what the owner says is the genius loci of the home – “spirit of a place” in latin. This is a common practice in his architect firm; when working on a project, they always identify the genius loci in order to accurately capture the essence of the space in their designs.

Casa Cometa’s distinctive curved roof and a large boulder incorporated into the architecture. This unique design element makes it a one-of-a-kind venue for corporate retreats, weddings, or creative productions.

The Concept of the Golden Ratio

After discovering the right location, it was time to start on the design of the home itself. A major design concept the architect used was the Golden Ratio.

“It’s a 50 x 50 concrete square platform that is offset in golden ratio. When it came to the placement within the square, we divided the 50 x 50 by 1.618 and ended up with this central axis. Then we divided it again, and got a shallower side and a deeper side. What that created was, instead of placing something in the center or randomly somewhere on the side, we started having very distinct roof lines. The west side has the most pronounced curve.”

A view of the kitchen with spiraling doorways leading to bedrooms, powder room, and laundry room.

The golden ratio was used throughout to not only decide placements but also the sizing of the window panels, the rooms, and the curvature of the roof. You’ll notice that everything is smaller, narrower, and shorter on the West side of the home – specifically the Southwest corner – and everything expands upwards and outwards towards the Northeast corner; glass panels on the South side go from narrow to wide on the Eats and the ceiling from the West goes from 6’ to 22’ on the East.

As you enter the home, you begin in an intimate mudroom with a massive floor-to-ceiling window giving you your first experience of the rock from within the house.

As you venture further into the home, you’ll notice a crescendo of doors to other rooms and spaces within the house, eventually leading you to the expansive open area of the main living space.

“Because of the narrow space in the beginning, you feel the tall space much better. If everything is tall, you feel lost in space. But if you occasionally compress yourself, you have this incredible experience as you enter the home.”

The mudroom with a view of the rock.

Elements of the Environment

To top it all off, the owner made sure to create a home that was cohesively integrated into its environment. The home was built to be an energetically self-sufficient structure made with consciously-sourced materials. A lot of the elements selected were inspired by the history of the area as well.

“This was a quarry after all. Till 100 years ago, many of New York’s sidewalks and foundations were made from bedrock from upstate New York. So when concrete became more popular, that’s when they closed this quarry down. This was another reason I wanted to do a concrete base – it felt like it was the right material in the context of this valley.”

The roof of the home was also specially built to harvest the power of the sun with the solar panels, but also to create a funnel that drains the rain water onto the rock and ultimately down to feed the natural swimming pond on the East side of the home.

A fun note – when you approach the built-in conversation pit, you’ll notice an opening with some rock peeking through. This wasn’t a planned design feature, but was something the owner kept in as a reminder of the land and rock that they are connected with.

A view of the main living space showing the dining room and sitting area from the second floor.

Happy Accidents

There are two fun and notable connections to nature that coincidentally happened as a result of the way the home was built in accordance to the golden ratio and the geography of the area.

The first one is that the opening at the bottom of the handrail in the guest loft perfectly centers in on Polaris, the star, at night. When you peek into it, it’s like looking into a telescope that’s positioned directly onto Polaris.

The second fun feature is how the curvature of the roof happens to perfectly connect with the line of the hills behind the home.

A view of the home from the South side, showing the line of the hill connecting to the line of the roof.

The Name – Casa Cometa

The origin of the name – to no surprise – is tied to the genius loci of the home, the rock. Cometa means Comet in many latin-based languages – and is a large object made of dust and ice that orbits the sun. The rock signified to us a meteorite that fell from a comet and landed on earth. The way the house is built around this rock reminded us of how galactic elements can unexpectedly enhance the beauty around them, like when comets orbit the sun. We invite you to absorb all the intricate design details and custom concepts that make this house not just a home but also a masterpiece.