This seaside house by Ruhl Walker Architects is raised over the landscape, helping it to have a minimal affect on the fragile coastal ecosystem of its Cape Cod setting .
Encompassing 2,800 square feet (260 square metres), the Property of Shifting Sands sits on a sloped waterfront web site in the modest Massachusetts town of Wellfleet, positioned in the hook-shaped peninsula recognized as Cape Cod.
The residence is surrounded by miles of undeveloped land and scrub pines.
Boston-based mostly Ruhl Walker Architects was charged with making a building that honoured environmental considerations expressed by the client, the town’s conservation commission and the US National Park Services.
This prompted the group to strategy a building that “appears to float out of and over its shifting, sandy internet site”.
“From the starting of style it was critically crucial to us and to our consumers that the home fit into its fragile internet site seamlessly,” stated the designers.
“Our team responded with great care by creating the house to curve and shift softly with the all-natural topography.”
The crew also conceived a landscaping scheme featuring native, drought-resistant plants. According to the layout team, these plants will develop in excess of time to visually merge with the house.
The property is oriented to maximise views and summer time breezes – but also to minimise its publicity to winter storms. The designers described the all round layout as a series of overlapping, cantilevered planes and volumes. There are organised close to a central block topped with an arched, copper roof.
The central volume consists of the major living and dining spaces although bedrooms are located in an adjoining wing.
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On the exterior, the upper portions of the dwelling are sheathed in cedar shingles, even though reduce volumes are clad in tongue-and-groove cedar boards. The elevation facing Cape Cod Bay characteristics window walls that supply sweeping views.
Site visitors enter the residence by way of a extended wooden ramp. “In the middle of the home, just inside the front door, is an architectural ‘hole’ that permits the residence to breathe and cool itself naturally most of the yr by means of its floor-to-ceiling awning windows,” said the designers.
Lining a single wall of this passageway is a trellis with evergreen and flowering plants.
In addition to the primary house, the architects designed a detached constructing with a loft-type studio on the upper level and a storage area beneath.
Accessed by way of a raised walkway, the 800-square-foot (74 square metre) studio is utilized for practising yoga, creating art and meditating. The ground-level storage location is used for boats and seaside gear.
“Our customers dreamed of a home that would perform equally nicely as each a year-round household ‘camp’ and also as a ‘thinking retreat’ for collaborating with their colleagues,” stated the designers.
The architects developed additional structures throughout the internet site that lend to the property’s camp-like ambiance.
There is a little, hilltop shed with working water – and an espresso machine – that can be utilized for operating and contemplation.
Visitors can perform basketball on a little court created into a hillside, or lounge in a scorching tub built into a wooden deck. One more deck was constructed to accommodate tents.
Other functions consist of outside showers near a path to the beach, two separate fire pits, and a shaded dining region.
The residence was designed to be offer all of its own power. Power is provided by way of solar panel arrays located on the roofs of the main property and studio. There are also large-efficiency air-to-air heat exchangers and vitality-recovery ventilators.
Undertaking credits:
Architecture: Ruhl Walker Architects
Structural engineering: Richmond So Engineering
HVAC: Allied Consulting Engineering Services
Solar: My Generation Energy
Landscape architects: Horiuchi Solein
Development: Sea Dar
Ground floor strategy 
Initial floor plan Dezeen
