Location: Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, United States.
Architect: Bryden Wood.
The Beach Shack is a luxurious residential retreat located in Ponte Verda Beach, Florida, designed by architect Bryden Wood. The 900sqm home is inspired by its tropical location and industrial design, featuring concrete interiors, high-tech interventions, and sustainable elements. The design concept was developed in collaboration with Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and is a continuation of similar architectural themes explored in a previous scheme in Germany for the same client. The project is an international affair, with a British practice working in Florida with American contractors and designers, a structural engineer based in Hawaii, and a German client.
The Beach Shack’s form is a bold, linear structure with two symmetrical wings extending from a central foyer and entrance, allowing for 360-degree views of the sea and flowing movement and connectivity through internal areas. The western street-facing exterior is built as a stand-alone layer from the main house using large precast panels dominated by a pattern of portholes. The eastern facade is fully glazed with composite aluminium-timber sliding doors and windows that embrace the beach landscape it faces. Inside, the home is minimalistic and high-tech, with guests greeted by a retractable hydraulic-powered staircase and three stainless steel, glass, and timber platforms. The interior architecture is inspired by the industrial background of the owners, and all metalwork on the house was built by a specialist nautical engineer and fabricator. The open foyer links the kitchen, living room, and library as a single, continuous space, surrounded by a combination of exposed vertical structural concrete surfaces and polished concrete floors that form the structure, softened by the deep timber mullions of the glazed façade, white walls, fun colourful furniture, and art.
Bryden Wood has been delivering commercial buildings for the client in Europe for many years, and the design for their private house in America is similarly industrial in look and feel to reference this as a celebration of the longevity of their relationship and previous built work. The Beach Shack can withstand winds up to 140mph, critical to a beachfront home in Florida. Landscaping and exterior lighting ensure harmony with indigenous vegetation and animal inhabitants, and due to energy-efficient engineering, the home is close to zero emissions. Overall, the Beach Shack is a stunning example of international architecture, combining industrial design with sustainable elements and high-tech interventions to create a luxurious beachside retreat.
Photo credit: .