A geometric fever dream in the Hudson Valley, where luminist architecture dissolves into forest, raindrops become a soundtrack, and sunlight feels like the main event.
Where we are:
Ex of In House, Rhinebeck, New York
How this place got here:
Completed in 2016 by Steven Holl—one of the most influential contemporary architects working today—the Ex of In House sits on 28 acres that were originally meant to be split into five suburban lots. Instead, the land remained intact and the house became an alternative: part home, part small luminous museum. The project derives from Holl’s research initiative “Explorations of IN,” which treats architecture as interior experience—spaces “shaped from within” and closely tied to their environment. Rather than building outward, the design compresses, pulls inward, and “creates volume through voids.”
At just 918 square feet, the house rejects sprawl: it stacks, overlaps, and folds in on itself. Holl aimed for visual cohesion with little concealed. The house reads as an architectural response to the surrounding forest rather than an imposition on it.
Materials and systems reflect that bringing-the-outside-in mindset: mahogany window and door frames, birch plywood walls, and thin curved wood layers throughout. Super-insulated plywood construction minimizes steel; there’s no drywall or cosmetic finish. As the welcome booklet notes, “All-natural oiled wood and plywood interior finishes are part of the Arte Povera materiality and economy of this place of wabi-sabi.” Heating is geothermal—cozily warming the floors—and electricity comes from solar, reducing reliance on outside systems.
What the stay was like:
Tucked into a rocky, tree-lined street, approaching the house can feel disorienting—especially at dusk when its angular, window-lined silhouette glows against the woods. The property reads more like art than a rental. My partner and I stayed two nights in early March for a quick getaway at the end of a harsh New York winter.
Rain defined much of our visit. With no TV or street noise, water on glass and wood filled the house at night. One evening, in the lofted bedroom, my partner read aloud from a book found in the living room, and rain threaded through the house alongside discussions of spatial light and proportion. Windows cracked open just enough to let the rain in; sunlight the next morning woke me gently through the large, shadeless bedroom window—by design, since light bounces off walls and dances on the ceiling.
Inside, the main living area features a long royal-blue couch, two sleek chairs, shelves of books, and a wood-burning fireplace preprepared by the host. The living room flows into an open, high-design kitchen with an espresso machine and a coffee maker, and a long dining table anchors the space. Lighting throughout is labeled (one light behind the sink serves perfectly as a nightlight), and a guidebook explains the house alongside books on luminist architecture and Holl’s work.
The home is airy and open: the living area is visible from the upper level, and conversation travels naturally across levels. The primary sleeping area is an open wood-lined, windowed loft with a comfortable queen bed, a standing shower, and a small bathroom. Adjacent to the queen, a wooden hive-like sphere functions as an extra sleeping or lounge area with a twin-sized sofa bed up top—you climb into it like a jungle gym. There are no closed bedrooms, so while the listing states it can sleep four, the layout functions best for two (or families with kids who use the hive).
A favorite spot was a tan chair with a small table and blanket facing floor-to-ceiling windows by the queen bed. Continuous circular windows frame trees down into the kitchen’s back-left corner—an even more dramatic view when leaves fill out in summer or explode in autumn color.
Outside, a gentle 20-minute hiking loop threads the backyard, dotted with quirky modernist art and the occasional deer. The house is deeply immersed in its surroundings, making presence unavoidable and offering a rare, necessary reset from digital noise.
What’s nearby:
The house is just over two hours north of NYC and a 15-minute drive from the colorful village of Rhinebeck. Main Street offers boutiques, restaurants, and local staples. Try Pete’s Famous Restaurant for farm-fresh mornings, Little Goat for pastries and coffee, and browse antiques at Beekman Arms. Foster’s Coach House is a western-inspired tavern with a cinematic neon welcome; Upstate Films’ Starr Cinema offers intimate screenings; Oblong Books sells books and vinyl; Le Petit Bistro serves oysters and craft cocktails.
For a standout dinner, drive 15 minutes to Pine Plains’ Stissing House, an 18th-century tavern turned acclaimed restaurant—creaky floors, fireplaces, candlelit tables, and refined comfort dishes like wood-roasted scallops and a signature coconut cake.
Bottom line:
Ex of In House is a compact, experimental refuge where architecture, light, and material honesty create an immersive, nature-attentive stay. It’s less about conventional comforts and more about presence—perfect for two people who want to unplug, soak in thoughtful design, and feel undeniably rooted in the Hudson Valley woods.
