A Stunning Beach Home Surrounded by Beautiful Native Vegetation in Vero Beach, Florida

Barrier Island House is a stunning contemporary home completed by Sanders Pace Architecture. It is located in Vero Beach, Florida, USA, with a blend of luminous interior offers an abundance of glass lens transparency.

by Jolana Jul 16, 2020 12 Images

Sanders Pace Architecture

Barrier Island House by Sanders Pace Architecture

This project is located within a waterfront neighborhood of modest 1950’s era houses alongside many more recent supersized replacements. Our process began by 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 an early 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 property’s best asset.

Once the decision to replace the existing structure was made a series of design options were explored which maintained the scale and character of the original house while accommodating new programmatic goals including a loft level, a detached workshop, and an abundance of outdoor space.

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 layout allowed us to provide the same interior program within a smaller amount of conditioned space, again a nod to the scale and character of the original historic neighborhood. Hurricane codes dictated our structural system which consisted of concrete with CMU infill.

As with most projects within this context, stucco clads the primary volume of the house. Dark brick and cedar are used as secondary materials cladding accessory volumes and surfaces while an abundance of glass lends transparency to the primary public spaces while offering uninterrupted views to the waterway beyond.

Photos by: Sanders Pace Architecture & Bruce Cole