Scarborough Beach House

A compact beach house (un-built), designed around a sheltering 3 sided courtyard, which would offer the inhabitants wind protection and privacy from the neighboring buildings while affording a primary view of the landscape and the ocean beyond.

The design strategy makes use of two contrasting languages which act in symbiosis. A finely crafted timber ‘box ‘ is inserted into a more robust, protecting masonry structure, built from conventional cavity brickwork. The timber box would incorporate delicate sliding screens and slatted windows to allow a veiled view of the distant ocean while retaining privacy and flexibility for the interior spaces. This language also refers to early 19th Century Cape beach houses which were built from discarded shipping crates, whereas the masonry part of the structure, of a simple white, flat roofed architecture refers to a Cape modern vernacular.

The house can be opened up to the courtyard in fine weather so that it becomes an enlarged and generous central ‘living’ room/gathering space, both intimate and generous.