Located on a small site nestled in the jungle of Trunk Bay on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, the size and topography of the site was inappropriate for a traditional house. For this reason, we looked at the archetypal bungalow and village configuration, and applied those concepts to this single family residence. Given the climate of the Caribbean is amenable to outdoor living, rather than one large traditional home, the functions of the house are broken up and dispersed across the site. Taking cues from Italian hill towns, a large deck acts as a sort of communal piazza, serving as the focal point and basis of organization for the other structures. The main living room and kitchen are housed in a structure adjacent to this piazza, while two bedroom bungalows are perched above this, angled away from one another to create privacy and elevated in order to provide unobstructed views to the beach below.

Taking cues from the vernacular building techniques of the region, the bungalows retain their vernacular forms, but with subtle differences in their composition. Soffits are replaced with subtractions, and gutters are concealed to retain the prototypical form of the vernacular bungalow. Additionally, the entire volumes are wrapped interior and exterior with pickled wood – a wood preservation technique typically used only at ceilings. This misappropriation of material, causes the project to be materially referential to the traditional construction of the Caribbean, a method which further reinforces the traditional Caribbean style while reinterpreting the use of material and traditional construction methods.