This is a small project with a big address. It is surrounded by water on three sides, since it occupies a plot 45 ft (14 m) wide on a point of land that accommodates a small inshore fishing port. Point House is a proto-urban project that participates in the idea of village-making, intended to communicate with the Shobac Campus up the road and its future neighbours, currently being designed.
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Half of the architectural experience is getting there. One approaches along a dirt road between two shingled ‘fish shacks’ (a cottage and boathouse), mounts a pretentious timber stair onto a raised terrace, then turns right under an illuminated entry ‘bite’, past a black kitchen box, and into a double-height great room. One’s view is drawn toward the sea through the south corner window.
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The wood shingles and gabled roof forms present a traditional north face to the public, whereas the more private south face presents a modern curtain-wall glass pavilion. The floating, iconic forms are raised on concrete fin foundations that reach out to enclose two courtyards; one for parking and one for sitting out.
Inside, black steel totemic elements anchor the user’s experience of dwelling in the landscape: they include a monumental truss, and a hearth that sits on a 28 ft (8.5m) plinth, which then becomes a folded-steel ribbon stair leading to the sleeping loft.