Space is where we live, work, play, make love, eat, rest, and raise a family. Space is what architecture is about. Like air, it moves. Masses within the general space affect the way it moves and make it more interesting. That's the magic of architecture," says Eduardo Faxas. He moves a can of cashews toward his glass, suggesting configurations of space, as a cooling breeze sifts through the screened walls of the porch.

We are visiting a house Faxas designed for a client in rural Dutchess County. The house sits on a hill that sweeps down to a placid river, providing a spectacular view from all the main rooms of the house. The windows are positioned to extend the visual flow of space far beyond the rooms. To capitalize on the view, two huge windows join at one corner of the house. Sitting where the panes meet, at the dining room table, you are nearly outdoors.

"In my work, I try to avoid dead ends," Faxas observes as we wander through the house, where the movement of space is encouraged by the placement of two entrances in most rooms. The ground floor flows around a central living room, which is raised three steps and anchored on one side by a massive stone fireplace. The room is divided from surrounding areas by a half-height wall with drawers and cabinets on the outside. Around the living room are a galley-style kitchen, a semicircular breakfast nook with stone walls, the dining area, and an indoor barbecue with a chimney and damper, patterned after old-fashioned Cuban cooking facilities.

Faxas left his native Cuba in 1953 when the University of Havana was closed down by students demonstrating against repressive policies of General Fulgencio Batista. Faxas, who describes himself as "apolitical," says his priority at the time was to finish his study of architecture. On the advice of a professor, he went to the United States and enrolled at Georgia Tech. After graduating and working for several years in Atlanta, Faxas moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, to work with Modern architects Eliot Noyes and John Johansen of the famed Harvard Five. "It was a very creative time for me," he remembers. His most important influence, however, has been Frank Lloyd Wright, whose writings he devoured and came to revere, despite his initial negative reaction to Wright's arrogance. "Wright was a genius," he says now. "Everything he touched, he approached from something higher. I learned from him that the love of an ideal is the love of life. To be truthful to that ideal means that everything you do is related to that."

The living room's half-walls extend the visual flow of space.

Faxas's work embodies precision, balance, and a diligent search for the proper proportions and materials. All the doors and windows at the Dutchess County house were crafted at his studio in Holmes, New York, near Pawling. Walls inside and out are made of cedar, while all weight-bearing surfaces - stairs, shelves, cabinets - are of oak. Most rooms can be lit with soft, indirect illumination from what Faxas calls "light shelves," which project light upward along the walls, creating a soothing glow. In the breakfast nook, light shelves built into the seat backs cast a subtle coppery tone onto the pale stone. The custom-made chandelier that hangs from the living room's vaulted ceiling features lights in cups made of hand-blown green glass, the entire assemblage created by interior designer Sam Paxhia of New York City.