There’s a magical island at around half an hour’s ferry ride from New York City. It’s called Fire Island and is just over thirty miles long and is parallel to the (more) famous Long Island. In normal circumstances it is home to about four hundred people – as well as a host of wild animals – but in the summer or over holiday weekends a further twenty thousand people descend upon the island. The island is dominated by three main colours: the blue of the ocean, the green of the trees and the browny-beige of the beach and most of the wooden houses. There are no cars on the island – something exceedingly strange in the United States – and so people move around on foot, by bicycle or in little carts.

If you are interested in architecture this is one destination that is wholly unmissable. In the ‘60’s and the ‘70’s the architect, Horace Gifford, a maestro of Modernism (albeit unrecognised during his own lifetime) designed many of the houses on the island which, at the very same time, also became the spiritual as well as physical home of New York’s gay community.

Gifford used to say: “One day we will learn to live with Nature rather than living in Nature.” Horace Gifford was an American architect who had been brought up in Florida. In all his design projects his ability to transmit the strength of the landscape and to allow himself to be inspired by the very nature of the place was evident – from the tides of the Atlantic Ocean and from the sand to the wind and pines around him. With a certain theatrical simplicity and large windows overlooking the ocean, Gifford beckoned the spectator into an open-air life so that Nature and Mankind might be brought even closer together. The architect only (or almost only) employed materials that were available on the island such as cedarwood or sequoia.

It was an architectural style that was both sustainable and avantgarde, the very symbol of a society that was undergoing transformation, of a generation in search of itself. In this way, Fire Island represented an opportunity for equality. In those very same years and not so many miles away not only was it illegal for people of the same sex to be married (as it would remain so for many decades after), but gay people were considered to be ill and deviant. There, on the other hand, gay people could dance together in public and, figuratively speaking, let their hair down. The Pines became the place where all their differences would be safeguarded. And let it not be forgotten that Luciano Pavarotti, Liza Minnelli, Peter Allen and Truman Capote (who wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s there) and Yoko Ono were all visitors.

Since it was accessible only by ferry or seaplane this island never changed from its wild state, so it was perfect for Gifford’s design projects. Indeed, it was the projects that needed to be adapted to the lie of the land and not vice-versa. A sort of universe all on its own. The houses were surrounded by the sand. Horace believed that beach life had to be happy-go-lucky and so the houses shouldn’t require any sort of maintenance work. Some clients were reluctant to warm to Gifford’s simplicity and he contested their requests for houses that were too big. He strove to create an imperceptibly united space which reached inside from outside. His aim was to create bright interiors, each room characterised by an affinity with the room next door and without any clear-cut separations. All details, for example, such as light switches, were reduced to the very minimum, almost hidden.

Albert Goldman, American professor and author, was commissioned by the New York magazine to write an article on Fire Island that was both cultural as well as anthropological. Goldman visited the island in 1971 and claimed that he had seen the future: many gay men could at long last feel that they were far from judgement and prejudice. They could help each other free themselves from the pressures of society.

It wasn’t very long however before the energy at The Pines began to dwindle when the gay community had to deal with the spread of AIDS; at that time an illness that was completely unknown. It cut down and swept away many, many lives including that of Horace Gifford himself in 1992.

Tourism still bobs along slowly on the island. Strolling along wooden walkways you get to the lighthouse. On clear days you can see the Manhattan skyline and you might still glimpse those wild animals. The most beautiful beaches on the island are Robert Moses State Park, Smith Point County Park and Ocean Beach where the finest white sand gets immersed into the cold waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Swimming isn’t for everyone (the water’s so cold) but especially when the island isn’t so full of tourists lying down on the beach is just the thing that you’ll want to do. Ocean Beach is also the liveliest area on the island with restaurants, bars and shops and it is there that the island’s most famous hotel is to be found, Palms Hotel. Between the bay and the ocean there’s an exceptionally beautiful nature reserve, Sunken Forest, with lots of paths you can take, alone or on guided tours with a local ranger.

Getting there: The island can be reached by ferry and tickets have to be paid for in cash. There are three ports on the island, Bay Shore, Sayville or Patchogue. Some of Gifford’s houses as well as houses designed by other equally famous architects, such as Carl Stein, may be rented (prices vary from 400 to 1,000 Euro a night) – and many of these can be found on Airbnb.