ROOMS with a VIEW

Designer ROSE UNIACKE relaxes a formal 1929 neo-Federalist cottage in the Hamptons with light-dancing neutrals, elemental materials, and powerful Asian art.

- CELIA BARBOUR

EMPTY SPACE MATTERS as much as form in traditional Japanese and Chinese art, and its shape must be as beautiful as the things it enfolds. This concept—called ma in Japanese and xu in Chinese—comes to life in a Hamptons house recently redone by superstar designer and gallerist Rose Uniacke. Built in 1929 by architect Penrose Stout, the ornate, neo-Federalist residence stands poised facing the vast ocean, in a manner more reminiscent of tidewater Virginia than New England. “It's a most extraordinary situation,” says the London-based Uniacke, “a formal house with proper bones sitting right there on the beach amidst the wild waves and sky.” The home also reflects the clients’ aesthetic sensibilities: The wife is a curator and scholar of Asian art, the husband a financier and avid photographer. Their collections—and their spirits—animate the simple, poetic rooms.