The Deep Dive: A Breezy Build

As any issue of Dwell proves, the choice of material or joinery method can transform a good project into a design for the ages. The Deep Dive is a forum where design and building pros can obsess over those details. Here we ask expert colleagues to share the inspiration behind house elements that delight clients—as well as the nitty-gritty information about how they were built.

The cube-shaped home of Marie Becker and Olivier Panchot sits daintily next to the dunes of Cayeux-sur-Mer, France—and a look within the volume reveals even more lightness. Fully-enclosed rooms take up only the western half of the cube’s interior, whereas its eastern half contains a deck and lush plantings. "’Thinking of how we wanted to live in this space, we liked the idea of a garden inside [the perimeter] so we could easily move between the exterior and interior, in summer especially,’" Olivier tells Dwell contributor Alice Cavanagh in the July/August feature, "Slices in This Compact Cabin in Northern France Frame the Coast Like a Camera."

The cabin is located on the English Channel just south of Baie de Somme, a destination well-known among kite surfers for its steady winds. Local veterans of the sport recommend the Cayeux-sur-Mer side of the bay to newcomers, because the prevailing breeze flows most dependably from the west and southwest.

"Marie and Olivier knew the climatic context of the site perfectly well when they came to meet us," says project architect Jean-Baptiste Barache, who runs the Paris design studio Arba with Sihem Lamine. "The request was for a house that would allow them to spend time outside without feeling the strong winds of the seaside, and at the same time enjoy a beautiful view of the dunes and the sea from the house." The bisected cube installs interior living space in direct view of the channel coastline to the west, while protecting the east-facing courtyard from stray gusts. "The wind in the garden courtyard, when there is one, is very light," Barache notes.

He also says that managing wind was more a feat of design than engineering. "The very stable, load-bearing sandy soil meant that foundations were kept to a minimum," the architect explains. The double-glazed windows did not require lamination or other ballistic-related reinforcement, either. The only visible bracing against wind loads is an overhead strut at the house’s northeast corner. Both window frames and exterior cladding were fabricated from durable larch, and the outward facing of the lumber is coated in pine tar to resist the salty air.

Since Arba was founded in 2007, the studio has worked to express "the idea that architecture is indistinguishable from the nature that receives it—that it’s just a heap or a particular arrangement of that nature with no break in continuity," as Barache puts it. "The sensation we’re looking for is the same as when you pass under a tree or enter its foliage. It's always a question of finding sufficient porosity to ensure that you don't leave nature behind when you enter the house, or to blur this point of entry." In Cayeux-sur-Mer, Arba has achieved a startling porosity, by turning a building envelope into a line in the sand.

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