The Higher Delaware River, a pristine 73-mile ribbon that separates New York state from Pennsylvania, has lengthy captivated city-dwellers, lured by thrilling rapids, dramatic sandstone cliffs and a burning want to get away from civilisation.
Six years in the past, two Danish transplants additionally fell below the area’s spell. Frank and Sofie Christensen Egelund had been searching for the proper plot of land on which to assemble a rural escape from their Manhattan loft. However this wasn’t to be an peculiar upstate bolthole – it was to be a guesthouse for his or her design firm Vipp, the Danish life-style model that manufactures the whole lot from pedal bins and bathroom brushes to swivel chairs and smooth modular kitchens.
A decade in the past, it started providing bookable guesthouses world wide, from Denmark and Sweden to Mexico (winner of a Wallpaper* Design Award 2025) and Tasmania. Typically positioned in spectacular distant settings, these retreats are furnished by Vipp and brim with the Scandinavian model’s signature minimalism. ‘It’s not one thing you earn money on. We’re not hoteliers,’ notes Sofie, who co-runs the corporate together with her brother Kasper Egelund. ‘We’re curious to know the way individuals really feel about our merchandise.’
The household had been looking out for a US property, however nothing had ever felt fairly proper. That was till an Higher Delaware tour led the Christensen Egelunds to a 16-acre plot up a steep nation lane, 100 miles away from New York Metropolis. ‘The sensation of remoteness – the bushes, the birds, the quietness – was what we gravitated in the direction of,’ Sofie says. ‘It was simply what we’d hoped for.’
Tour Vipp Pavilion, upstate New York
(Picture credit score: Photograph by Eric Petschek)
To design the guesthouse, the Christensen Egelunds already had an structure studio in thoughts – the LA-based apply Johnston Marklee, a agency with a profitable mixture of ‘nice individuals and exquisite work’, says Sofie. Fortunately, founders Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee already owned a variety of Vipp merchandise, together with the traditional pedal bin. ‘We had been completely in,’ Johnston says.
Johnston and Lee instantly recognised the great thing about the plot, with its wooded slopes, tranquil pond and dramatic rock outcropping. They got here up with a pavilion-like idea, based mostly on an unrealised venture they’d designed in Chile, that, as Johnston places it, ‘would choreograph the views’.
The guesthouse reveals off the Vipp portfolio, together with modular sofas, eating chairs, espresso tables, ground lamps and outside lounge chairs
(Picture credit score: Photograph by Eric Petschek)
(Picture credit score: Photograph by Eric Petschek)
The drama begins as quickly as you pull into the driveway and observe the pond in the direction of the home, a low-slung, rectilinear quantity on the far finish of a clearing. To enter, you go by a semicircular courtyard surrounded by excessive partitions that deliberately blot out the panorama. ‘It purges you from nature so that you simply don’t see something however sky – a bit like a James Turrell Skyspace,’ says Lee. As soon as inside, although, the surface is inescapable, seen by broad panes of glass. ‘It’s conceived of as a constructing within the spherical,’ says Johnston. ‘Each view is totally different.’
The 2-bedroom guesthouse’s footprint is pretty modest – it totals simply 1,200 sq ft – however the intelligent structure, minimal decor and pure mild pouring in by a sequence of skylights make it really feel vibrant and ethereal. Vipp’s monolithic ‘V3’ kitchen anchors the open-plan dwelling area, its anodised aluminium and stainless-steel surfaces offering a hanging counterpoint to the stucco partitions, whereas the model’s textured modular ‘Loft’ couch, positioned in entrance of an expanse of home windows, frames a serene view out over the pond.
The open-plan dwelling area is anchored by Vipp’s vertically-ridged, freestanding ‘V3’ kitchen, which is lit from above by a round skylight
(Picture credit score: Photograph by Eric Petschek)
(Picture credit score: Photograph by Eric Petschek)
‘You possibly can solely speak about a chair for thus lengthy. However a felt expertise – you can speak about for a very long time’
Sofie Christensen Egelund, third technology Vipp proprietor
The interiors are understated, all taupes, greys and off-whites, with a fabric palette of stucco, polished concrete and wooden – ‘it’s very, very Danish in that manner,’ says Sofie – however the restraint, after a circuitous drive up Route 97, seems like its personal luxurious. So does the remoteness. There’s no tv and no cell phone reception (although there’s WiFi), permitting guests to utterly shut themselves off from the world in the event that they so select. ‘We performed with the thought of calling it a ‘human charging station’ Sofie says.
This forest retreat gives the proper invitation to unplug and unwind. In the course of the summer season months, guests have the choice of exploring the area’s quite a few mountain climbing trails or embarking on a guided rafting journey, however most will seemingly wish to keep put – pottering across the kitchen, curled up within the criminal of a settee or burrowing into fluffy bedding to gaze up on the stars by a skylight.
(Picture credit score: Photograph by Eric Petschek)
(Picture credit score: Photograph by Eric Petschek)
‘You possibly can solely speak about a chair for thus lengthy,’ Sofie displays. ‘However a felt expertise – you can speak about for a very long time.’
vipp.com
Supply: Wallpaper
