DUNE HOUSE
The house is situated in Thorpeness, England on the Suffolk coast, replacing an existing building at the site. The house is a holiday house for rental and is part of Living Architecture.
To get a planning permission it was important to relate to the existing, typical, British seaside strip of houses. The roofscape, the bedroom floor, somehow plays with the formal presence of these buildings, and also brings into mind a romantic remembrance of holidays at bed- and breakfasts while traveling through the UK.
The ground floor is contrasting this by its lack of relationship to the architecture of the top floor. This architectural ambiguity of the house also addresses the programmatic difference between the private upper floor and the social ground floor. The living area and the terraces are set into the dunes in order to protect it form the strong winds, and opens equally in all directions to allow for wide views. The corners can be opened by sliding doors; this will emphasize the floating appearance of the top floor.
While the materiality of the ground floor; concrete, glass, aluminum, relates to the masses of the ground, the upper floor is a construction made of solid wood, cladding stained dark as the existing gables and sheds found in the area.
