Architecture Wednesday: Two Hulls House

It sits along the coast, atop granite bedrock and surrounded by boulders. It looks like it's not going anywhere, and it isn't.

Two Hulls House in Nova Scotia consists of two pavilions that float above the beach like two ships in dry-dock for the winter, forming protected outdoor places both between and under them. It's also a bit like a pair of binoculars looking out to sea. 

And while it may seem like a weekend home, a vacation getaway, it's actually a full-time home for a family of four, with both a “day pavilion” and a “night pavilion.” 

You enter the house from the understated land side between the abstract, library ends of the two pavilions, then passing through them toward the sea, turning to the left and entering the living pavilion, or right into the sleeping pavilion. The linking form that connects the two pavilions, contains the generous entry foyer and the kitchen. The seaward ends of the two main forms--living room in one, master bedroom in the other--create protected outdoor porches or night-time “lanterns” over the water. 

Its white steel endoskeleton resists both gravity loads and wind uplift. The 32-foot cantilevers and concrete-fin foundations invite the sea to pass under without damage. The wooden rain screen consists of 8-inch vertical board-on-batten on the two “hulls,” while the linking piece is a monolithic block of weathered wood inside and out, clad in 4-inch horizontal shiplap.

It looks ready to set sail.

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