Excerpt: Baymass Lake House by Karl Damschen and Meister Varma Architects features a design shaped by the site’s coastal constraints and natural context. A terracotta wall defines the zones and acts as the spine of the layout, from which light wooden structures extend toward the landscape. The architecture blends solid and transparent elements to create a seamless connection between built form, landscape, and water.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] The design of the resort is born of the constraints and opportunities the waterfront site offers. Coastal regulations in force at the time mandated a 50m setback from the high tide line. This left a large frontage unusable but also free from development. The site had an existing building that needed integration into the programme. Future development also had to be taken into account when the resort expanded and if the owner chose to live there. An appropriate layout was needed that could accommodate all this.
We chose to divide the site in deference to the regulation line with a terracotta red wall that rises among the trees and slices across the site. It at once delineates the public from the private zones and becomes the spine from which the architecture emanates. The stoic wall gradually gives way to a more transparent, light wooden structure which ensures each room has a panoramic view of the landscape and waters beyond. Large glazed doors and wooden louvers draw in the lake breeze. A ‘moonlight window’ perched above the bed fills the rooms with diffused light.
The material palette is one of elegant restraint – dressed granite pillars and handmade Athangudi floor tiles complement the antique brass fittings and hardwood furniture. Built in beds and sofas pare away the clutter. The bathrooms with ferrous oxide walls are washed with light filtered in through marble louvers. A sensitive approach to landscape and water conservation is employed throughout. Nearly all trees are retained; existing ponds are shaped and consolidated so future development can be designed around them.
A boat channel lined with aquatic plants brings a piece of the backwaters right into the property. The granite clad swimming pool and water basin stretches out into the landscape and ties the buildings to the land and water around.
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