Bayside Residence

PKA Architecture

Short description

When the clients acquired an extraordinary sloping double lot overlooking a lake, they commissioned the architecture firm to design an 11,000 sq. ft. home nestled discreetly into the landscape. Unlike the many elaborate traditional homes on the shoreline, the clients’ goals included a quiet, unobtrusive modern home with single-level living for themselves and a family-friendly lower level for their grown children and grandchildren.

The main level contains the owners’ living areas, an office, attached garage and a connection to the lower level through a sport court. The stair lands within the family gathering space on the lower level while large sliding doors provide access to an outdoor pool deck, sunken courtyard and expansive lake-side play lawn. The sport court, three bedroom suites, bunk rooms and hangout spaces ring the courtyard. The pool terrace extends the communal spaces into the landscape, arriving at a dramatic wall screening the pool from the adjacent park and marina. A striking black, metal-clad boathouse sits on the shoreline, pushing the program to the lake edge while providing the family with a covered space to relax while enjoying the lake.

Approaching the house around an existing mounded collection of mature trees, the house reveals itself as a modest single-story structure. The house stands as a stark contrast to the typical neighborhood typology. A dark stone path leading to a bead-blasted stainless steel entry door draws the visitor past a sunken lower level courtyard while a linear skylight provides a glimpse to the spaces below, which are covered in a green roof to mask the extent of the lower level. The house is anchored by a massive, two-story stone fireplace while the sunken courtyard brings daylight to the lower level spaces that encircle it. Fiber cement panels clad the main level volume, which rests on the solidity of the dark stone base, reflecting the layered programmatic elements of the house. The sculpted skylights bring daylight to the interior spaces of the main and lower levels, providing a visual connection to the sky.

In response to the solar exposure and privacy requirements of the house, the designers responded with an innovative custom system of extruded aluminum louvers. Installed on four sides of the house, the system animates the interior spaces while providing the owners with an easy way to manage solar exposure and control privacy. The system includes a combination of sliding and rotating louvered panels controlled by user-friendly buttons and rotary dials. The sliding louvers, which can be positioned individually along the entire length of the house, come together in front of the living room windows, animating the two main-level terraces while modulating southerly sun. The rotating louvers on the south and west façades provide additional shade and privacy for the main entry, master bathroom and dining room.