Confident and Self-Effacing

The Mussel Shoals House sits along a stretch of California coastline between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Designed as a weekend home, the project responds to significant restraints—a paucity of budget, a requirement to secure the house against storm and absence, and, above all, to provide a place of quiet respite for the client. The result is a confident yet self-effacing building that defers to the repose and tranquility of the sea.

Working within the restrained budget directed the specifics of the design resolution. A concept of a homogeneous shell, minimal in its aspect and material articulation, which allows the color and texture of the site to be emphasized, is the response. Additionally, a necessity for storm doors and sun control, make manifest the paneled systems--allowing this shell to “open and close” as needed.

The arrival sequence begins at the adjacent highway and transitions to the lower beach, passing through an entry courtyard created by the stepped section. Moving toward the ocean, the terraced Zen garden becomes a deep and compressed space, creating a skyward emphasis that highlights the endless line of the horizon and magnifies the vastness of the sea. Here, the sharp angles of the house contrast against the soft textures of the garden, reflecting the ragged terrain of the rocky beach.

From inside, the sliding storm doors and pocketing panels of glass open to reveal a complete relationship with the ocean. This is the soft interior that is protected by the sharp exterior carapace. Not only from the main living space, but from the master bedroom as well, where one is invited to a kind of perch, encouraging a quiet way to ponder the evening ocean from above.

Approaching the design constraints with requisite discipline produced a functioning framework, minimal in its attitude, which allows a background posture for the house against the beauty of the site.