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This house is not the first Paul Masi designed for himself, but it is, as he puts it, 'much more grown up.' As one half of Bates Masi + Architects, a firm based in Sag Harbor, New York, he has now crafted a 3,200-square-foot house for his family in the heart of nearby Amagansett. The half-acre site close to the resort's main road posed a particular acoustical challenge to an architect adept at trans-lating the local vernacular of cedar-shingled cottages into graceful modern residences.

The 12-inch-wide boards that clad both sides of the walls are held in place by springlike stainless-steel clips that allow unhindered expansion of the wood. That same 12-inch vertical module is used for the marble wall slabs in the three bathrooms and for built-in furnishings and interior details. The custom clips that hold the various elements in place also serve as hooks and cabinet pulls. Oak floors and ceilings and weathering steel, in the house and for the outdoor showers, round out the sparse material palette.

The dominant wall of the main space'for cooking, dining, and gathering'features felt panels between the concrete and its loosely hung cedar boards for additional sound absorption. Opposite it, sliding glass doors open completely to the outside, where hornbeam trees line the perimeter of the property'making a private and tranquil oasis at the center of town.