Contemporary Barrier Island House by Sanders Pace

Knoxville-based architectural practice, Sanders Pace, has designed the Barrier Island House project. Completed in 2012, the chic beach home is located in Vero Beach, Florida, US.

The owners of this property approached the architects to provide design services for a site located on a natural canal leading to an intracoastal waterway.

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According to the architects: “In recent years the couple had begun to spend the majority of their time at the property in Vero Beach. Living in the house it became clear to the couple that improvements to the 50+ year old structure had become a necessity.

“We began the process by first evaluating the client’s goals with their existing property in order to determine whether or not the existing single family residence on the site could accommodate their needs. After a visit to the site it was determined that any improvement to the existing residence would require the demolition of the original terrazzo slab on grade, perhaps the house’s best asset. Once the decision to demolish was made a series of design options were explored which maintained the scale and character of the original house while adding new exterior program to the site.

“A desire to preserve as much of the natural vegetation on the site as possible including many beautiful live oak trees meant containing new construction within the footprint of the original building. Improved efficiency within the footprint of the building allowed us to provide the same interior design within a smaller amount of conditioned space, again a nod to the scale and character of the original historic neighbourhood.

“Materials used are also complementary to the context and include white stucco, dark brick, and native cypress. Landscaping includes a combination of native palms and live oaks coupled with tall drought tolerant grasses against the building providing a screen for condensing units.”

Images courtesy of Bruce Cole Photography

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