Final+Project

__** Final Project: The Shore House **__

The Shore House is a type of building that is spatially organizated around one point or component of the building itself.

My client, Cristina Smith, is a 26 years old photographer and she already has a loft in New York City, where she lives and works, but she asked me to design a vacational house for her, here in California. She told me that she wants to bring outdoors into her house. She needs a big, well-lit space to relax and clear her mind. She wants natural beauty in every room of the house. She loves simplicity, but she also wants a lot of windows.

Cristina and I found a beautiful place near Oceanside, San Diego. From that place you can see the ocean and the mountain. She thought it was the perfect combination. The shore, the sun, the tropical climate and the contrast with the mountain, gave her the area she needed.

The Shore House (as I called it) is made with precast concrete and glass. The building's structure is based on bearing walls and some opening are supported by posts and lintels. There is a vertical element that supports all the structure and creates a focal point. The house is spatially organizated in a way that makes the visuals of the mountain and the shore really powerful.

The shape of the building is a cube. But inside it has some rectangular shapes (horizontally and vertically) and it has different spaces; one of them has a triple height (9 mt.) and another one has a double height (6mt.).

The first floor is a very open space where light travels with freedom and its view connects the room with the ocean. It's the perfect place to do something relaxing. The second floor has enough space for the kitchen and the living room. In the third floor we have the only bedroom. The fourth floor is an extension on the bedroom that can be used as an attic. And finally, there is an habitable rooftop, that reveals the connection between the ocean and the mountain range.

This construction created a place where the client can spend his time as relaxed as possible. It was easy to relate the client's needs, the context in which the building is placed and the structural needs of the building itself, so, I really enjoyed this proyect.

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