Surf House

The design for the Surf House grew from a careful analysis of the sun’s path across the site and resulted in a modern take on the timeless surf shack with a clear progression from street to sea.  A courtyard, tucked between two small structures at the front of the lot and the main house, sits where the sun shines most in the winter, acting as a warm, light-filled cloister all year round.  On the courtyard’s southern side, the main house leads from its quiet entrance to the ocean to at its rear, where the house’s spacious great room and its master bedroom above open to views of the sea.

Like the walls of the surfboard room and the garage, which open to the North and South, the main house is bound by two permeable edges, creating a horizontal flow across the site that is accentuated by the strong, continuous lines of the roof planes visually unifying the separate buildings.  Vertical slats in the façade of the surfboard room both make it a naturally ventilating space and set a tone for the rest of the home, which adopts and extends the wood slat exterior.  Atop each of the structures, a green roof serves as an elevated garden with a view of the ocean.

LOCATION Santa Cruz, California 

PROJECT TEAM

Interior Design: Commune Design
Landscape Architecture: Ground Studio Landscape Architecture
Civil Engineers & Surveyor: Bowman & Williams Civil Engineers
Geotechnical Engineer & Geologist: Haro, Kasunich and Associates, Inc.
Land Use and Development Consultant: Hamilton Swift & Associates, Inc.
Structural Engineer: Strandberg Engineering