The Pacific House
- Location
- Malibu, California
- Style
- Coastal Contemporary
- Completed
- 2024
- Area
- 6,800 sq ft
A house of thresholds, where the line between room and terrace can be moved by hand.
Set on a bluff above Point Dume, the Pacific House is a single long pavilion beneath a floating timber roof. Its ocean-facing wall is a sequence of pocketing glass panels, so the living spaces can open entirely to the terrace and the sound of the water below.
The owners — a film editor and a marine biologist — wanted a home that felt unhurried, with very little furniture and a great deal of light. The interior palette is restricted to four materials, so the changing colour of the sea does most of the decorating.
Mid-century Californian beach pavilions, reconsidered for a contemporary coastal code.
Set back sixty feet from the bluff edge, with a native coastal sage garden stabilising the slope.
One long room for living; two bedroom wings behind a courtyard that shelters the pool from the wind.
A continuous north skylight balances the strong ocean light, so no room is ever lit from one side alone.
Outdoor showers, a board room off the garage, and a kitchen that opens to the terrace on three sides.
Design Story
A roof that floats. A wall that disappears.
The timber roof spans forty-two feet without an interior column. It rests on six slender steel posts set back from the glass, so when the panels slide away, nothing stands between the room and the horizon.
Salt air is unforgiving. Every exposed fixing is bronze or stainless, every timber was kiln-dried and sealed before reaching the site, and the glass carries a coating that sheds spray without tinting the view.
“The house is mostly a frame for the weather. Some days that is the best thing in it.”
Material Palette
- Vertical-grain Douglas fir
- Sandblasted white concrete
- Limestone terrace paving
- Marine-grade bronze hardware
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