two red chairs sitting on deck with view of the landscape
The unusual aperture shapes help break up the height of the house while affording panoramic vistas of the Berkshire and Catskill Mountains.

November 18, 2025

Words: Lila Allen

Photography: Devon Banks

Inside A Cedar-Clad Retreat With Views Of The Berkshires

Architects Miroslava Brooks and Daniel Markiewicz were committed to the bit. The two friends and business partners—cofounders of the firm Forma—were smitten with New York’s Hudson Valley after bidding on a local project in the area. So much so that they decided to build a getaway there from their then primary residences in Stamford, Connecticut, and Brooklyn, respectively—a “clean slate,” as Brooks puts it, where they could test their architectural ideas. But first, there were boxes to tick: a sizable property, views, and proximity to the city.

More than 50 plot visits later, they found it. Markiewicz, the scout that day, made a video for Brooks from the 9-acre expanse in Hillsdale. “It was like a painting,” she recalls. The home they’d planned would be shared—a place for them to visit solo or with their partners or friends—so flexibility was paramount.

Forma Crafts A Picturesque Home On The Crest Of A Hill

exterior facade of home
Three stories tall but efficient, the cubic structure contains 1,500 square feet.

The footprint of the resulting three-floor volume is a mere 27 by 27 feet, the interiors a tidy 1,500 square feet. Even in that wee size, Forma has packed in three bedroom suites, one on each level for maximum privacy, as well as a cedar-lined covered deck and an open-plan living-dining-kitchen area, the latter on the second floor for elevated vantage points of the surrounding Berkshires.

The apertures through which those views are seen signal this is not a typical upstate retreat. Tectonically, the house is like a dog sitting: its haunches grounded in the back, with two upright legs supporting the front. “The angles were calibrated to align with the diagonal porch openings, i.e. the ‘legs,’ which then also needed to work on the inside,” Brooks says of the outdoor-indoor relationship.

two red chairs sitting on deck with view of the landscape
The unusual aperture shapes help break up the height of the house while affording panoramic vistas of the Berkshire and Catskill Mountains.

The polygonal windows mirror the diagonal thrust of those legs. “We like to think it has an animated quality,” Markiewicz notes, like the exhaust hood that swoops in, action-hero style, above a slanted window cut and the fireplace mantel that resembles a Transformers toy. Furnishings tell a different story: Chairs by Marcel Breuer and Arne Jacobsen came from Markiewicz’s grandmother.

Five years in the making, the project received its finishing touches last spring. Now, though, there are a few more residents to factor in: Brooks and Markiewicz both had children during the process. But if ever there were a home where the more’s the merrier, they’ve built it.

Walk Through This Home

two people sitting in kitchen and dining room area
Hay’s 32-inch-diameter Rice Paper Shade pendant fixture hangs in the adjoining kitchen, where most cabinetry is oak and counters are quartz composite.
wooden exterior of home with peek of inside of home with wooden panels
Planks of 6-inch-wide Western red cedar, slate-stained and natural, compose the three-bedroom home’s siding and deck floor, paneling, and ceiling, respectively.
interior shot of living room with birch paneling
Paneling in both spaces is birch plywood.
bathroom with dark blue tile
There’s a bathroom on each floor, including this ground-level one that’s partially wrapped in large-format terrazzo tile, featuring a Dioscuri sconce by Michele De Lucchi.
living room area with fireplace and bookshelves
On the second floor, the living area centers on a fireplace and cast-iron wood stove enveloped by glazed ceramic tile; furnishings are inherited vintage.
Main bedroom with light blue bedsheets
Flooring in the main bedroom and throughout is white-oak planks.
exterior of home on a grassy field
The 27-foot-square footprint intentionally treads lightly on the 9-acre plot.

FROM FRONT MORSØ JERNSTØBERI: STOVE (LIVING AREA). DALTILE: FIREPLACE TILE (LIVING AREA), UPPER WALL TILE (BATHROOM). COSENTINO GLOBAL: COUNTERTOPS (KITCHEN). DURA SUPREME CABINETRY: CABINETRY. DESIGN WITHIN REACH: PENDANT FIXTURE. TILEBAR: LOWER WALL AND FLOOR TILE (BATHROOM). KOHLER CO.: SINK FITTINGS, SHOWER FITTINGS. WS BATH COLLECTIONS: SINK. ARTEMIDE: SCONCE. THROUGHOUT STUGA: FLOOR PLANKS. ANDERSEN CORPORATION: CUSTOM WINDOWS. COLUMBIA FOREST PRODUCTS: BIRCH-PLY PANELING. SHERWIN-WILLIAMS COMPANY: PAINT.

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