Island House Plan 1

All Plans ©MCMarchitects 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

A design for a narrow peninsula of land on a private Caribbean Island. Influenced by Japanese architecture - the design incorporates the simplicity and human scale of the tatami mat module, and utilizes shoji style sliding walls to create an indoor-outdoor Island design. Japanese architecture is well suited to Island living because it responds to shared conditions of humid heat and wind present in both locales.

Hawaii House

Landscape Plan by LA Studio ©2004 ALL Rights Reserved

House designed for the Big Island set on a hillside overlooking the ocean. Series of terraces cascade down from the swimming pool like Bali rice paddies. The rooms all open with large sliding doors to the view of the ocean in one direction and in the opposite direction, open to an internal pond system integrated with small courtyards and quiet retreats.

Jumby Bay Beach Bar

The beach front Veranda for Jumby Bay Resort is an evolution of remodels and additions that happened over the years. This year the dining and bar areas were repositioned to be protected from the rain yet still be open to the beach. The building structure was kept light and unobtrusive so the guest's experience was focused on the palm lined beach and Caribbean sea.

Island Resort Suite Concept

©MCMarchitects 2010 All Rights Reserved

This is a concept for a resort suite that can be developed as duplexes and tightly grouped on a site for high density. It is a combination of indoor and outdoor space using a splash pool that spans it's whole width. A central atrium allows light and air into the interior of the suite, so even though it may have party walls on both sides, a guest always feels connected with the outdoors.

Resort Room Design Concept

©MCMarchitects 2006 All Rights Reserved

©MCMarchitects 2006 All Rights Reserved

This resort room concept creates a villa that can be sold, rented as one unit or rented separately as three rooms. The center unit has kitchen facilities and an upstairs master bedroom with sitting room. Two adjacent bedroom suites are accessed through outdoor courtyards so there are no internal connections between rooms. Each suite is entered through a private courtyard with fountain. There is more outdoor covered space than indoor space for a truly Caribbean living experience. When northerners vacation in the Islands they want to be outdoors in a garden environment, not confined to a narrow balcony or terrace as provided in most resorts. In this design the sleeping, bath and kitchen areas are enclosed for bug control or to be air conditioned, though all these rooms can be cooled by natural breezes. The outdoor rooms need to placed on the leeward side of the wind.

Condominium Kitchen Remodel

Before

This kitchen remodel was for a client in Pittsburgh, PA who combined two units in a high rise condominium into one unit. The kitchen was a totally enclosed windowless room. Our design opened the kitchen to the surrounding rooms and hall - using very clean and contemporary lines to create a sense of openess.

Island Flex House Design Concept

We developed the Island Flex House design concept for Jumby Bay, a private Island off Antigua, where lots averaged about two and a half acres in size. The concept is based on the idea that each room is a building. This works well in an Island setting because it allows each room to be well ventilated with natural trade winds and provides a high degree of plan flexibility and privacy for houses that are basically enclosed outdoor spaces. It also allows villa compounds to be easily expanded with additional guest bedrooms without disruption to the existing house.




Flexibility of placing building components on site allow maximum advantage to be taken of view or wind conditions, which can be a governing design criteria in some Island environments.





Very different houses can be made from some simple common building components, as illustrated in this post. Simple easy construction is essential when building in some third world countries, and can help logistically when building on Islands where transportation costs and accessibility of building materials matter. The following posts show some of the building components used to create an Island Flex House design.