Living Architecture

Words by Michelle Heslop. Photos by Jason Rick.

Custom building their dream home wasn’t the intention when this couple viewed the listed two- and-a-half acre waterfront property that housed a structurally sound 1950’s rancher. Walking down the driveway for the first time, the husband recalls stating that this was a place he could retire even though, at the time, retirement was still quite a few years down the road.

Seeking calm, after living with traffic congestion and the increasing density of southern California, the couple bought the property and began to redesign the pre-existing home. However, when proposed plans for the rancher never seemed quite right, the homeowner attended a comprehensive seminar on the use of rammed earth for home construction. While the method makes ecological sense, the densely forested site negated some of the advantages and the cost-benefit ratio didn’t pan out as he had hoped.

Next, the couple went looking at other waterfront homes and came across a Studio DB3, Dan Boot- designed home in Cadboro Bay. “The clean, understated design features were appealing, the layout made sense, and we wished we could have just taken that home to our site,” says the homeowner, who then sought out the residential designer to see what he could do with their property.

Just days later, Dan was exploring their landscape before putting his ideas on paper. He was in a quiet contemplative moment on the beach in front of the property when he had an epiphany. “I got a feel for the forms of the landscape as I was turning over a shell in my hand that I had found at my feet,” states Dan, who adds that this is the moment where the idea for “Sea Change” was born. Rather than build the structure on the landscape, he envisioned the architecture as an extension of the landscape itself, like a living, lyrical, breathing organism.

The homeowners had developed a pretty good idea of an age-in-place layout where all the main living spaces would reside on one floor and Dan came to them with a distinctive design built on a radius to embrace the topography and mimic the curves of a shell.

For such a significant piece of property, the residence only takes up about five per cent of the overall site. “I didn’t want to overwhelm the property with a structure; it’s not cavernous and there is no empty void space in the layout,” says Dan, who built both an eighth- and quarter-inch scale model to provide a tactile reproduction for the couple to see exactly how the home would interact with the sun from every angle.

The unique curvatures of the design called for a master craftsman so Dan collaborated with builder, David Dare from Road’s End Contracting, who states that “this was a very unique build with curved walls, a wave-like roof, and not a square corner in the house.” He worked closely with surveyors to provide the exact points of the radius, as well as structural engineers, and the truss manufacturer on the roof structure.

“We used three or four trusses through the centre to create a curve and everything else is stick- framed off of the trusses — they’re telescoped out to the overhang,” states David, whose team built many of the home’s custom pieces in his woodworking shop, like the gorgeous light-stained oak stairs.

The approach to the house offers a bold first impression host to a dramatic porte cochère entry.

From there, David built the entrance to create a poetic sense of unfolding, a play on layers as you move through the home with the soaring curved ceiling of hemlock coupled with expansive views of the ocean serving as the main attraction.

“When you walk in you essentially have two wings,” explains Dan, who designed one side of the house as the primary living area with open-concept kitchen and great room, while the other side holds a serene enclave with a private master bedroom and spa-like ensuite separated by the stairwell.

“Great design is invisible,” says the designer, who worked closely with Dan to incorporate concrete, steel, glass, and wood to achieve a warm, natural aesthetic. Despite the powerfully high ceilings that had the potential to make the great room feel vast, Jodi created an inviting and comfortable feel with creamy white walls, warm-toned, heated concrete floors, and corten steel on the room’s focal point, a 22-foot-high wood- burning fireplace with floating hearth.

“The proportions of the house aren’t overwhelming,” says Dan, who wanted the indoor/outdoor connection to be notable from the moment you step into the house. Jodi translated the theme starting with concrete floors that draw you in and continue throughout the main floor and extend to the terrace.

Clean and uncluttered, the modern interior has an organic feel to the palette with selective pops of blues and chartreuse woven through the home at the owners’ request.

The mezzanine office overlooks the great room, while the lower level supports two guest bedrooms that enclose an entertainment area with an impressive theatre and games room.

The curtain wall system along the waterfront side of the house and the low threshold doors enhance the kitchen’s visual and physical connection to the outdoors where ocean breezes can flow right through the house for cooling in the summer. “It’s like a passive design without all the rigorous assessments,” adds Dan. Taking Dan’s sun study into consideration, David built deep roof overhangs that will heat the floor in the winter when the light is low and added multiple sliding glass doors and window vents for cross ventilation in the summer months.