Design Hunting
Artist Scott Bluedorn built it out of found materials: local kelp, a kids’ jungle gym.
A tiny, hidden home on the harbor in East Hampton
Artist scott bluedorn grew up in East Hampton, a place of great natural beauty that has in recent decades become home to the .01 percent, who live in megamansions. So when the Parrish Art Museum asked him to create an offsite project for its annual Road Show exhibition, he built what he calls the Bonac Blind in Accabonac Harbor. It’s inspired by a duck blind. “I wanted to build a barge of some kind,” Bluedorn says. “I have always looked at these small structures to hide hunters. They are always camouflaged with grasses, and you’ll see them in bays or marshes, and they look like tiny houses.” Which he meant both literally and in terms of the movement for smaller, less ecologically intrusive homes. “I thought it would be really fun to transform the blind into a more permanent, actual living situation.” That was his starting point. “It evolved from there in terms of what I wanted to do conceptually, which was actually to honor the local fishermen, the baymen and farmers, hunters. A lot of them have been there for generations, really since the 1600s.” Known as the Bonackers, they are named after the bay this tiny house was built on. “Many of these families have been displaced, and I wanted to raise awareness about the housing crisis and climate change with rising seas, so it’s an adaptable structure.” His cabin is six and a half by nine feet, and much of it, including the window, which looks like the one in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, was made out of found materials (in this case, a jungle gym). But has he spent the night? “It’s funny, ’cause that is what everyone wants to know. It’s like a little dream spot. But it’s not fully insulated.” ■