The Rural We: Grigori Fateyev
The Hillsdale, New York-based architect has been designing residential, commercial and municipal projects throughout the Berkshires, the Hudson Valley and New York City for the past 20 years, 10 of them at the helm of his own firm, Art Forms Architecture. As his company’s name implies, a large portion of Fateyev’s clients are cultural institutions, museums and art studios, as well as artists with whom he collaborates on site-specific art installations, public sculptures and exhibitions. In addition, Fateyev has done curatorial work for Bard College at Simon’s Rock, TurnPark Art Space (which he also designed) and UMass Amherst’s School of Architecture, where his most recent show, “Anton Ginzburg: In-N-Out,” will debut on Feb. 25. An exhibit based on Fateyev’s own architecture work will be shown there in November. Fateyev grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he studied theater set design before going on to graduate from the Cooper Union School of Architecture, where he studied under John Hejduk. You can read about his recently completed Great Barrington project, The Green Houses, in Dwell.
About three years ago I designed and built TurnPark. Alexander Konstantinov created the master plan — the gatehouse, the barn gallery and the landscaping, which is one of the biggest earthworks art projects in the area. We took 80 acres, stripped it and reseeded it with native grass. It feels like a natural landscape but a lot of its contours have been carefully sculpted. In the spring, we’ll be putting new siding on the barn gallery. The space works well as a summer gallery, but people often walk by and don’t realize it’s a gallery.
Recently I’ve been working on the manor house at Foxhollow in Lenox. It was built in 1920 and we cleaned it up, removed a lot of additions that had been added, and restored it to its original form. We added 8,000 square feet as an annex to complement the existing Greek Revival structure. We saved and restored the original building but gave it a contemporary spin.
Another project I’m really excited about is a contemporary log cabin we’re building in Hillsdale. The wood is imported from Finland, where it’s manufactured with a technology that combines smaller pieces of wood, so they’re more stable and you get cleaner lines. We created an airtight but breathable envelope, so the air moves through at a micro level but there are no drafts. As a result, it’s a very comfortable building to be in and keeps a stable temperature. We designed the house specifically for the site. It’s perched on a knoll and the landscape around it falls away, so it feels like it’s sitting on a little mountain. The glass on both sides gives it a see-through effect.
A studio and residence for two artists in Hudson, N.Y. Photo by Dan Karp.
On my desk right now is the design for a contemporary, three-story home on State Street in Hudson. We are hoping to break ground in May. The third floor will be mostly terrace with a video production studio. I’m fascinated by Hudson’s open fabric, it’s so diverse and there are so many strange and inspiring spaces between buildings.
I want to make the world a more beautiful place to be, but the mechanics of it how it continues to function over time is critical, as well. Architecture is not just about cool details and interesting plans; it’s also about integrating technology and the physical parts of a house. That’s where the challenge is. I’m always looking for different solutions to the same problems. Art inspires me; I see art as a research laboratory for architecture. Artists are experts at distilling an idea, and these tactics can also be used by an architect.
There’s a reason you call an architect, you want to change something about the environment, there’s a need for something that doesn’t exist yet. Hopefully, in the process of collaboration, you get the chance to delight and surprise. My biggest critique of my own work is that it comes out exactly as I’d envisioned it, that I haven’t gotten to a new level or created a new idea. A client of mine once said the project we created was everything he needed, but nothing he expected. I love that.
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