studio

For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”

A modern interpretation of the traditional dogtrot home, Camp Baird comprises two cabins placed along an L-shaped orientation. An elongated, solar-heated lap pool runs the length of the south-facing side, alongside an expansive ipe deck that measures nearly 1,600 square feet.

The weeHouse exteriors are clad in corrugated Cor-Ten, but with a custom pattern of folds to create an organic randomness. The foundations were designed with a shallow recess around the top to make the modules look like they’re hovering. After they bought the property in early 2014, the Siegels camped there for two summers while they saved up money and planned a permanent structure. In his research, BJ came across this design, a customizable prefab house by Alchemy Architects. "Of all the things that I found, I was drawn to that one because it was absolutely the simplest and cleanest," he says.

"My goal was to carry on the client’s family legacy by creating a very special place that took inspiration from the landscape,” explains architect Tom Kundig.

When the Casali family gave Michael Krus and Prishram Jain of TACT Architecture free rein to work with unconventional materials, the architects responded by creating a geometric 4,300-square-foot smart home encased in aluminum panels by Agway Metals. The front facade features Cor-Ten steel fabricated by Praxy Cladding.

The fence surrounding the property consists of wire mesh that will become a visual screen as it is overtaken by ivy, and gabion walls that contrast with the sleek materiality of the architecture.

Rocky Brook weeHouse diagram

Gabions and loose stone create walkable pervious surfaces.

The gabions hold smooth rocks from the nearby San Luis Rey River; a fireplace feature is flanked by benches.

The architecture firm tackled the hardscape: patios, pathways, and gabion walls. Landscape designer Marilyn Guidroz worked with existing native plants on the site and added more species to ensure there would be blooms year-round for the bees kept by resident Ron Krohn.