Coastal House

Coastal House in Ocean Grove is a devel­op­ment project designed as a large fam­i­ly home, with an endur­ing design approach that appeals to the local beach town prop­er­ty mar­ket. Com­mis­sioned by a local builder with a strong inter­est in nat­ur­al, hon­est mate­ri­als and the abil­i­ty to achieve qual­i­ty fab­ri­ca­tion, the shared design and build approach focused on cre­at­ing a robust home capa­ble of weath­er­ing grace­ful­ly in a coastal envi­ron­ment, pre­sent­ing a refined aes­thet­ic that bal­ances solid­i­ty with light-filled, open liv­ing spaces.

The site occu­pies an ele­vat­ed posi­tion with­in Ocean Grove, set back from the beach and offer­ing expan­sive south­ern views across the coast­line. It is well con­nect­ed to the local main street and ameni­ties, while pro­vid­ing access to views and south­ern out­looks, pro­tect­ing from pre­vail­ing winds, and max­imis­ing north­ern light.

The house address­es this with a semi-court­yard lay­out, where the build­ing wraps around a cen­tral out­door space fea­tur­ing the pool. This arrange­ment shel­ters both pri­vate out­door and inte­ri­or areas and opens the liv­ing spaces to abun­dant north­ern sun­light, cre­at­ing strong visu­al con­nec­tions between the indoors and the courtyard.

Set into the con­tours of the site and framed by native coastal land­scap­ing, the low­er lev­el of the home is clad in reces­sive recy­cled nat­ur­al tim­ber, with the entry door fur­ther recessed with­in. Can­tilever­ing above, a strik­ing rec­ti­lin­ear con­crete vol­ume is posi­tioned to max­imise expan­sive beach views, with glaz­ing extend­ing along the front façade. The thick­ness of the con­crete is refined with a cham­fer along its edge. A rough lime­stone col­umn is intro­duced at one point to sub­tly divide inter­nal spaces for pro­gram­mat­ic pur­pos­es, adding tex­ture and cre­at­ing a con­nec­tion to the local stone.

The ground lev­el con­tains guest bed­rooms, ameni­ties, garage, and stor­age, with a stair and lift con­nect­ing to the upper floor. The main liv­ing spaces and pri­ma­ry bed­rooms occu­py the upper lev­el, tak­ing advan­tage of north­ern light and coastal views. All bed­rooms are locat­ed at the rear of the house as part of a care­ful­ly zoned plan, ensur­ing pri­va­cy with direct access to out­door areas. The main bed­room faces the cen­tral court­yard and pool, offer­ing a pri­vate retreat with visu­al con­nec­tions to light and gar­den areas. This zon­ing ensures a clear sep­a­ra­tion between pri­vate and pub­lic areas.

Inter­nal­ly, the home employs a soft, neu­tral palette, using sub­tle tex­ture and mate­r­i­al vari­a­tion to define spaces and main­tain cohe­sion with the archi­tec­ture. Nat­ur­al rough lime­stone and tim­ber are intro­duced to add tac­tile materiality.

Nat­u­ral­ly pati­nat­ed cop­per cladding sur­rounds the pool pavil­ion, framed by lush plant­ed gar­dens. The inter­play of nat­ur­al mate­ri­als, light, and space defines Coastal House as a home that feels con­sid­ered and resilient. Reflect­ing its design and qual­i­ty, Coastal House achieved a high bench­mark in the Ocean Grove prop­er­ty market.