Horizon Residence

Project Overview

Horizon Residence is a single-storey house sixty metres long and one room deep. That proportion was not a stylistic choice: it is what it takes to give every space in the house the same uninterrupted sea horizon, without one room borrowing its view over another.

The best thing about the site

The site is a coastal dune, which means salt, wind and sand rather than a benign view. Setting the house behind the primary dune rather than on top of it cost eight metres of elevation and bought a building that will still look new in twenty years.

Creating Lasting Value

Everything within reach of salt air is either marine-grade stainless, anodised aluminium or hardwood with no coating to fail. The roof is a single unbroken plane with concealed drainage, because on this coast every joint and every gutter is a maintenance appointment waiting to happen.

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Key Features

• Sixty-metre single-room-deep plan
• Uninterrupted sea horizon from every room
• Sited behind the primary dune for shelter
• Marine-grade stainless and anodised fixings
• Uncoated hardwood chosen to weather evenly
• Single unbroken roof plane with concealed drainage
• Louvred east face for controlled sea breeze
• Native dune planting reinstated across the frontage

Built Around Lifestyle and Opportunity

The clients had lived on the site in an existing cottage for eleven years, so they arrived with an unusually precise brief — where the wind comes from in February, which corner catches the first light, where the sand collects. Most of the plan came from those observations rather than from us.

Project Summary

Horizon Residence is a house shaped by one idea held consistently: a single line, seen from everywhere. The length, the depth, the roof and the siting are all consequences of protecting that.