Beech finishes dominate in the kitchen, where three islands reflect the tapered geometry of the house, narrowing as they touch the floor. As they float on minimal touch points, the kitchen islands echo the small outcroppings of rock visible in the water off the coast.
Designed by father-son-duo
Big Sur is where the land mass of the North American continent dramatically drops into the Pacific Ocean along the Californian coast. Stretching over one hundred and twenty kilometres from Carmel to Gorda, this remarkable coastline sits five thousand feet below the Santa Lucia mountains. With its globally renowned natural landscape, Big Sur brings focus to the daily cycles of the land, demanding attention and surrender from all that exists within its dynamic environment.
Anchored within this rugged terrain shaped by changing temperatures and heavy winds is a home designed by Field Architecture. Created with a necessary conviction to withstand the commanding force of the Pacific Ocean, Big Sur House somehow manages to sensitively acknowledge the beauty and intricacies of the landscape.
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The interior spaces are shaped by elemental materials. The warmth of oak and beech dialogue with the cool grey quartzite of the walls.
Removing the pre-existing stick-built structure that has been damaged by weather and climate, father and son team Stan and Jess Field sought to understand the place before commencing their design. “As we started to spend more and more time on the site, we noticed that there was a soft patch of dirt that had been filled in with yard waste, and we asked the contractor if he could help us explore what was underneath it,” Field Architecture co-founder Jess Field says. “To our surprise, we uncovered an intermittent waterway—an amazing natural feature that had been filled in over the years.”
An extended wall from the house into the landscape and a door inserted into a gap in the stone monolith welcome guests at the entry pavilion. The exterior paving continues into the house and ends in a bench where shoes can be removed before stepping onto a warm timber floor. Perhaps the most dramatic moment, although one of many, comes when one traverses the ravine, an experience amplified by the floor-to-ceiling glass on both sides of the bridge that creates a sense of connectedness to the vast coast beyond.
The Ceccotti Collezioni DC 90 armchair designed by
“There is a seamless flow between the spaces of shelter in the east, where the house burrows deep into the site’s topography, and more expansive spaces to the west, where the ground drops off and you feel like you are floating over the ocean,” Field explains. “The south façade is protected by deep overhangs that protect it from the high sun, and the great room has massive stone walls that appear to have been carved out of the rock, balancing the horizontal, wooden plane of the floor,” he says.
Throughout, the materials palette echoes the aesthetic language of its surroundings. The designers find contrast and complement in the hard stone exterior and warm oak and beech inside, alongside the cool grey quartzite of the walls. With minimal touch points, the islands seemingly float in space, “echoing the small outcroppings of rock visible in the water off the coast,” Field adds.
True to the Field Architecture ethos of exploring conversations between buildings and land, Big Sur House respectfully embraces the site in which it sits while providing a home to be lived in and explored by the couple and two young children who reside within it. “With each project, we strive for a symbiotic relationship between the built and natural environments,” Field says. “Big Sur was a case study for us to create spatial experimentations in collaboration with the landscape—it has a push-pull dynamic which is firmly anchored in the land but also pulled towards the sea […] it’s exciting and very powerful,” he adds.
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A wall extends into the landscape to welcome you as you approach the entry pavilion; a gap in the stone monolith reveals a wooden door. The exterior paving extends into the house and terminates in a bench where you remove your shoes before stepping onto a warm wooden floor; this is the genkan or arrival structure.
The most dramatic moment comes when you traverse the ravine, an experience that is amplified by floor-to-ceiling glass on both sides of the bridge that place you within the grand coastal landscape.
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