63jili Their Design Work Dried Up, So They Built an Inventive Home for Themselves

For years, Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang thought about building a vacation house. But the couple, who live in Brooklyn and run an award-winning firm called nArchitects, never seemed to have the time.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2020, when they were visiting a friend near Rhinebeck, N.Y., that they found themselves with the opportunity. “Much of our work is for agencies, and public buildings, but a lot of that went on hold during the pandemic,” said Mr. Bunge, 57.

Designing a house for themselves would be a chance to realize a personal dream — and one that would keep their employees engaged.

ImageMs. Hoang and Mr. Bunge at their vacation home. “We had this dream for so long,” he said.Credit...Michael Moran/OTTO

Their friend’s house was on a small lake, so they sat on the dock and opened a laptop to look at available building lots. “We started searching on Zillow, from basically Pennsylvania to Connecticut,” Mr. Bunge said.

After hours of browsing, they suddenly realized the best lot was right in front of them.

“We were like, ‘Wait a minute, there is actually a lot across the lake,’” he said. “The irony was we were looking at what would become our land.”

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