The Coastal House

The site falls eight metres from road to shoreline, and the wind arrives from the north-west almost every day of the year. Those two facts decided the house.

Heavy where it needs to be

Rather than sit one volume on the slope, the house steps down it in three terraces, each held by a board-marked concrete retaining wall that doubles as the structure of the room behind it. The north face is nearly closed — a thick, quiet wall with deep reveals. The south and west faces open completely.

The result is a house with two characters. From the approach it reads as a low stone thing, almost part of the landform. From the water it is all glass and timber, sheltered by the terrace above.

A plan that follows the sun

Living spaces occupy the middle terrace, the only level that receives direct light from morning through evening. Bedrooms sit below, cooler and half-buried, with their own courtyard cut into the slope. The top terrace holds the entrance, a workshop and the garden.

Materials that will age in public

Concrete is left as it comes out of the boards. Oak is smoked rather than stained, so wear reveals more of the same colour instead of a pale scar. Limestone floors run continuously from inside to the terraces, with a single 12 mm expansion joint at the threshold.

Nothing here is intended to look new in ten years. It is intended to look cared for.