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Designed by Johnston Marklee, Vipp Pavilion brings the Danish brand’s self-service hospitality concept to a pondside site in Upstate New York.
In Lumberland, New York, Vipp Pavilion sits beside a private pond on a 16-acre site in the Upper Delaware region. Designed by Johnston Marklee, the 111-square-meter guesthouse is Vipp’s first retreat in the United States and the fifteenth addition to the Danish brand’s collection of bookable design stays. The program is compact: a central living and kitchen area, two bedrooms, a bathroom and shower, and an outdoor shower. There is no reception desk or hotel-style service. Guests stay in a fully furnished house, cook in the kitchen, and use Vipp’s furniture, lighting, and objects as part of daily life.
The building has a simple form from across the water: a low, pale volume set against meadow and trees. Its plan is more complex, shaped from two tangent ellipses that loosely follow the edge of the pond. Smooth and ribbed stucco give the exterior a tactile finish, while a green roof and native meadow planting by Larry Weaner Landscape Associates help settle the house into the site. Arrival happens through a curved courtyard, where the view is briefly withheld before the main living space opens toward the water.
Inside, the pavilion is organized around a skylit elliptical room with concrete floors, textured stucco walls, and large framed glass doors facing the pond and meadow. At the center, Vipp’s anodized aluminum V3 kitchen sits below a circular skylight, its rounded corners and vertically extruded profile echoing the curves and ribbed surfaces of the architecture. The material palette stays close to the landscape: pale stucco, polished concrete, sapele wood, mahogany-framed openings, travertine, moss greens, fir tones, and autumn browns. Curtains, a textured sofa, swivel chairs, and built-in millwork soften the harder surfaces without crowding the rooms.
The two bedrooms are tucked into the curved plan, with large windows framing the garden and surrounding trees. Three roof skylights bring daylight into the house throughout the day, making the small footprint feel open without relying only on glass walls. Beyond the pavilion, the site remains largely pond, meadow, paths, boulders, and forest. Nearby, the Delaware River, state parks, hiking trails, rafting, fishing, and birdwatching place the retreat within a wider Upstate landscape. Vipp Pavilion pairs Johnston Marklee’s sculptural geometry with the brand’s self-service hospitality model, creating a precise but relaxed stay shaped by architecture, furniture, and setting.
