Architect Peter Braithwaite isn’t deterred by harsh weather. In fact, he says “it’s part of the charm” of living and working in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where windy and wet conditions batter fishing houses and residences that dot the craggy coastline.

With his eponymous design-build firm, Braithwaite has crafted his share of dwellings in the region, all of which feel as if they’ve been dropped in nature, but are built “so they don’t blow away in the wind,” he says. The first time he visited the site for his latest clients’ home on the shores of Bathurst, New Brunswick, “the rain came in horizontally,” he recalls.

His clients, a young couple who were keen to build a year-round residence, wanted to be able to host and drink in expansive coastline views over Chaleur Bay, an area within the Gulf of St. Lawrence. “The location was ruggedly beautiful, and the clients’ ambitions seemed both appropriate to the waterfront location and challenging enough to pique our interest,” Braithwaite says. From the start, connecting their lifestyle to the coastal landscape and climate was the design’s driving force.

With the clients acting as builder on the project, Braithwaite designed a cedar-clad box with generous windows on the first and second levels that run almost the length of the facade and wrap around slightly at its north and east corners. Known as The Sandbox—“it’s literally a box on the sand,” Braithwaite explains—the waterfront home has a commanding presence among its low-slung gable-roofed neighbors.

For the vertical cladding, Braithwaite chose a knotty Eastern cedar. Before being installed, the planks were hand-dipped in a mixture of water and LifeTime, a natural powder that helps preserve the wood while hastening its patina. “When cedar first goes up, if it’s not treated in this manner, it has a lot of red and yellow hues that aren’t really a part of the vernacular,” Braithwaite says. “Over time,” he explains, “it turns this beautiful silvery gray. The preservative expedites that process. It makes it fit into its location more quickly.” Today, the cedar planks reflect the exteriors of the area’s fishing buildings, or the weather-beaten shingles of coastal homes in nearby Maine.

The silvery cladding is broken up by black-framed, commercial-grade windows by Kawneer Window Wall and Cor-Ten steel elements protruding from the facade. A rooftop viewing patio is accessed from the second level via an exterior steel staircase wrapping the home, while flanges in more Cor-Ten form a threshold around the front door and a window of the same size positioned directly above it. “It’s a windbreak,” Braithwaite explains. “When you open the door, it doesn’t get torn off in the wind. It also marks the entry, but it’s drawn from the building culture here.”

Once inside, a small hallway leads past an open kitchen and then into the main living area, where its large windows direct the eye outside to the water. Braithwaite took great care to determine the proper height of the windows so that they worked in tandem with an L-shaped sofa he built custom for the space. There, the owners and their guests can enjoy an over-the-shoulder view of the water or look in toward the kitchen. “With the bench facing in, you feel like you’re part of the landscape instead of just gazing at it,” he says. “That was important to the clients.”

Braithwaite and his firm designed and built all the cabinetry and built-ins for the home, including in the kitchen, out of their shop in Terence Bay. They started with locally sourced wood, using Quebec birch for the furnishings and joinery and maple for the countertops. From room to room, Braithwaite paired the wood with white walls and chose concrete for the floors, since it’s easy to maintain. “It’s a good material for indoor/outdoor houses where you’ll be entertaining on the deck or inside. It has a rugged nature that wears with time,” he says. For added comfort during winters, which can be brutal, the team installed in-floor hydronic heating.

“It’s literally a box on the sand.”
—Peter Braithwaite, architect

Against the back wall on the first level, a staircase leads to the second, which contains the primary bedroom, a guest bed, and a shared bath. In the primary bed, the windows are positioned to capture sunrise over the ocean. Adjacent to the window on the northwest wall is a built-in dressing area, also in birch.

From the initial visit to the site, it was apparent that the vistas toward the sea were of particular importance to the owners. “We realized that an elevated view could extend the gaze beyond the neighboring cottages and down the long-reaching beach,” Braithwaite says. “It would add diverse experiences and help to create a greater connection between the interiors and the natural landscape.”

More from Peter Braithwaite Studio:

This Sun-Soaked Cabin the Canadian Wilderness Is a Breath of Fresh Air

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Peter Braithwaite Studio / @pb__studio

Structural Engineer: Corbo Inc.

Interior Design: Peter Braithwaite Studio

Cabinetry Design & Installation: Peter Braithwaite Studio

Excavation: Jenks Excavation