Castle Black at Sea Ranch

This was a house we designed for ourselves — so no competition for the architectural services!

True artists inspired by socially relevant modern design, architect Geoff Campen and designer Diana Ruiz designed a new minimal, modern, open home they would call their own. It was important that the design of their new house engage closely with the contours and characteristics of the landscape. The former San Francisco city dwellers fell in love with Sea Ranch with the consistency and inventiveness of its designs and the careful architectural connections to the land.

The house with its dark stained siding rises upward toward the back where it blends with the pine and redwood forest behind it. The bedroom loft captures views of the forest through tall vertical windows that mimic the trees outside. A steep sloping roof line flows downward where the living spaces have wider horizontal windows framing the seascape. 

A truly open floor plan includes just two enclosed bathrooms while the rest of the flex spaces are divided by a series of curtain systems and separated floors. The functional kitchen wraps around a central core allowing for unobstructed views of the ocean and forest throughout most of the house.

The two main factors for the design of the volume are the relationship with the site, and the requirements for the structures in The Sea Ranch. Because of the unique site, with the forest in the back and the open view to the ocean in the front, a lot of the design came from this interaction. The house rises and is more vertical among the trees, and appears more horizontal in the meadow facing the ocean. The windows and interior spaces also follow the vertical/horizontal orientation.

On the interior, we wanted an open plan where you always had some connection to the outdoor environment. Pretty much anywhere you are in the house there is a view of both the ocean in the front and the woods in the rear.

Additionally, the open plan and spaces were designed to accommodate a more casual style of living, where the kitchen, living area, office/studio area, and even the sleeping rooms all merged into a more integral and interesting architectural space.

Not substantially. In order to protect the neighbors' views, the siting of the house was moved further to the rear among the trees. This ended up being a beneficial change as the feeling of the portion of the house among the trees is very serene and cooler (nice in the summer months). Additionally, it inspired the addition of the deck in the front of the house, which takes advantage of some whitewater ocean views.

The project is very energy efficient and uses high-performance windows/glass, spray foam insulation, hydronic radiant heating in the concrete slab, and high efficiency water heating. Additionally the house is prepped for solar panels which we plan to add soon.

The house has a very simple palette of materials: dark stained siding, white oak paneling and cabinets, raw steel trim, exposed concrete floors, white painted walls. We feel the simplicity and natural finish of the materials connects well to the surrounding environment. Additionally the darker stained siding, which also extends into the interior ceiling, allows the house to minimize its visual impact and blend into the shadow line of the surrounding trees.

Email interview conducted by John Hill.