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Dog Leg Right
This 2,500 square foot vacation home for golf enthusiasts is designed for week-long getaways and a place to commune with nature. Visitors “tee-off” at the garage, “carry” a dry creek bed to a covered dock-like ramp to the front door bound by a masonry bulkhead-retaining wall. The foyer marks the beginning of the “fairway. A planted interior “sand-trap/bunker” is located under the stair mid-way down the fairway. The living area at the crook of the “dog-leg” is treated as an overlook to the nearby tee-box within sight of the main gathering spaces. Here inhabitants view golfers on the tee box swing for the green of a cypress-lined par-3. The “approach” down a hall is lined with supporting spaces for the master suite, deemed the “island green” in the woods.
The entire house and garden is delineated by a masonry bulkhead similar to those used on this golf course when contending with topography. This bulkhead element acts as the “generator” of the design, establishing the vocabulary of detailing and character of the building. The “bulkhead” acts as foundation wall, garden wall, building wall, terrace wall, and becomes the element which separates the private and public environments to the north and south. Scattered, small portals in the bulkhead wall further extend the golf-hole metaphor to that of a fort-like maritime structure or sailing ship where gun-mounts would be placed to ward off those trying to “play-through”, while permitting narrow beams of light to pierce the hallway. The clapboard sided gable box housing the master suite appears to rest on a bulkhead in a manner similar to the icehouses and shrimp shacks along the river around which this community is designed.
All “waste-areas” with trees, bushes, and animal habitats are preserved for privacy, ease of maintenance, and containment of pesticides and fertilizers from the watershed to the river. Areas inside the bulkhead are landscaped and manicured to bolster the effect of a man-made island/golf-hole bound by nature. Four outdoor areas are formed by the building; open/turf areas, covered/screened porch, trellised master suite porch, and a south side sun terrace. The material palette is low-maintenance lap-siding, cedar shakes, and stucco.