What was the brief?

MorenoMasey architects were asked to create a modern five bedroom beach house for two families overlooking a stretch of beach in the Caribbean. The house doubles up as a holiday home for the client and also a rental property to local fisherman and their families in the off season. The design is a sensitive re-interpretation of the local area, a contemporary reimagining of the timber beach house through the eyes of a London family.

What were the key challenges?

• Building a property in a hurricane zone

• Working remotely with the local architect

• Trying to integrate the needs of a family using it as a home and the local community using it as a fishing dwelling

• Finding a way to blend the local vernacular with the contemporary architecture to feel like it belongs in the community but is still clearly a contemporary design

• Planning constraints - restrictions around distances from beachfront, aligning with other existing buildings / neighbourhoods

What materials did you choose and why?

The materiality is a simplified palette of local materials re-assembled in a contemporary form to blend in sympathetically with the surroundings. Products were selected by local architect, MorenoMasey does not have the exact details to hand.