Architecture Wednesday: A Day At The Beach

It's no secret that San Francisco is one of my favorite places in the whole world. I spent a great deal of time, when I lived in California, in The City, and still miss it terribly to this day.
One thing I love about it, is that you can drive less than an hour or so out of San Francisco and be in a completely different world; like a cool beach town. Like Stinson Beach.
Which is where this, relatively small, 1900 square foot beach house is located. It was designed as a second home for a three-generation San Francisco family, and is in an area called Seadrift, a gated community that originated in the 1950s at the tip of Stinson Beach.
Peaceful. After partying at The Stud, it'd be nice to relax at Stinson.
And it's one of those green houses, very sustainable materials used in its construction. Photovoltaic panels generate all the home’s electricity--and even send surplus energy back to the grid--while all of the home’s systems--hot water, HVAC, and radiant heating--are integrated, electric-based, and powered by the PV panels on the roof. The only use of natural gas is at the cooking range, which draws from a 50-gallon propane tank, so, with the exception of that propane tank, the home is net-zero in terms of its energy consumption.
Zero.
The house is built of a diverse and durable mix of materials, including locally harvested cedar siding with a non-toxic bleaching oil finish, aluminum-framed windows and doors, native cedar ceilings, integral color concrete floors, and painted MDF and walnut cabinets.
Environmentally friendly. It's all the rage.
Local building codes require new construction to be at least three feet above grade--in anticipation of rising sea levels--so the architects approached the project like building a pier, creating decks that step down from the home to the water.
Inside is one of those "California" open plan designs, able to accommodate large numbers of people throughout the day, and the seasons. The living area opens completely to large decks; the shape and size of the decks make them inviting and usable, with an intimate courtyard on the sunny, south side and an L-shaped deck on the lagoon side to the north. Glass railings allow uninterrupted views to the water and hills beyond, and there is a generous deck at the water level to accommodate swimming and boating.
Inside, the building is zoned into living and bedroom wings. The living room, kitchen and dining spaces comprise the main area, with an adjacent family room. Articulated skylights bring in lots of patterned light. The fire orb--which is what they call the fireplace....oh so California--rotates to send warmth to the living room or outside to the deck. The compact, bedroom wing is sequestered for sleeping. Two bathrooms, enclosed with pocket doors, intersperse the three bedrooms for shared and en suite use.
While beach houses are often funky, this one is modern and refined yet still casual, with clean spaces and clever function that fits the family’s lifestyle. 
A day at the beach. Who's in?

click to emBIGGERate

For those of you who love floorplans--and i'm a whore for them--here's the floorplan at Seadrift.

via HomeDSGN