Suns End Retreat: A Minimalist Home with An Intimate Retreat and Low Maintenance

Suns End Retreat is located in Michigan. It is a residential project of Wheeler Kearns Architects in 2014. The idea is about creating a minimalist home for a family along the quiet beach with an intimate retreat and low maintenance. The best thing about Suns End Retreat is the Lake Michigan view right in front of the home.

Context

The main context of Suns End Retreat comes from the home arrangement. This home has a pronounced sloping, sizeable neighboring, and also dune topography. The position of the home takes an advantage of the lake expansive views.

Volume

The two shifting volumes are used to design this home, maximizing the southern privacy and exposure. Those volumes the can diverse environments to be enjoyed. The dune integrity is maintained by the home position on the dune inland-side.

The privacy balance and the outdoors openness can be reached by the layered planes, spaces, and also textures. The two-story volumes are opaque, parallels with the home property. The window volumes also cab bridge the road-side wooded landscape and the lake-side beach landscape.

Environment

A quiet and high energy environment of Suns End Retreat is provided by the sunken sun-court. This court is formed by the alternating forms, gathering natural lights for all rooms. The environment is not only quiet but also sheltered to the wind an noise from the kinetic lake.

Materials

The palette is made in a calm style with the natural earth tones surroundings. The home exterior is clad by the warm-grey vertical cement board, used to strengthen the surrounding trees verticality. The douglas fir can wrap the walls and the floors inside, creating a warm and cozy atmosphere.

Via wkarch