Architects: Raad Studio
Project: Sea Bright Beach House
Location: Sea Bright, New Jersey, United States
Photography: Robert Wright
Text by Raad Studio
On a seaside site bracketed on two sides by water, our design team sought to balance an embrace of outdoor natural beauty while seeking to accommodate the site’s vulnerability to storms.
The design solution that resulted is the marriage of landscape and architecture. Though the neighborhood itself is graded flat, the parkland to the north is a wild original dunescape. By restoring our idea of the original natural state to the site, we created a set of hydrodynamic dunes with penetrations that allow water to sluice through the land, while simultaneously elevating the house well above the historic high water mark.
Through strategic site planning, a variety of exterior spaces were developed; some provided privacy and respite while others captured expansive views and offered more dynamic engagement. Green roofs and wood decking maximize groundwater recharge.
An elevated set of volumes, built using local maritime construction techniques, perches atop the dunes to create huge vistas that float above the restored native landscape.
