Colee Hammock House

Fort Lauderdale, Florida | 2012

This modern residence is sited on a dramatic rise beneath the old-growth tree canopy of Colee Hammock in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The clients, a young couple, requested generous spaces and lots of natural light. They also wanted areas for outdoor living, and multiple perches from which to observe the landscape. The home provides multiple living zones terraced in response to the site, offsets in level that help organize its plan into a series of indoor and outdoor rooms. This alternation, creating outdoor analogues for each indoor room, is a theme in S+A house designs. Here, the firm was also exploring a range of outdoor space types, so the domesticated space of the front patio contrasts with the more wild, sloped ecology of the back yard. The living room is balanced between the two. The overall sequence of spaces make an orchestrated promenade that brings all the elements of the home, terrestrial and aquatic, built and unbuilt, formal and information, into a synthesis. The opportunity to explore the themes of Tropical Architecture and modernism within everyday livable spaces was key. Warmth and texture are conveyed using natural materials such as wood and stone on the exterior. By contrast, white walls and natural tones were used to create a kind of blank canvas to allow the landscape and accents of color to filter through the mostly transparent walls of the home.

Photos by Robin Hill