The ‘House of Sails’ is an exquisite beach house in Nosy Be, Madagascar designed by Italian architects SCEG, makes a case for the mantra of form following function.
The need for optimal ventilation and daylighting informs the intriguing form of the roof. The use of local materials in implementing what is arguably a modernist design also offers a sense of place and identity.
Heres how the architects describe it,
With the House of Sails, four primary volumes on two levels house the interior of the residence. It utilizes a primary organization with independent spaces connected by wooden pathways and the central patio, mediating element between the inside and the outside, connects the front to the rear, the sea and the forest.
The roof, like a straw tent, covering the volumes to the beach and protects the house from the water, light and wind. The house has a large slanted straw roof that is reminiscent of a sailing yacht, a reference to the Nosy Be area where the private residence is located.
The house mediates between a residential privacy gradient and a outdoor gathering space with the spaces and organizations of the building offering both practical and private spaces that somewhat also open up into an environment outdoors. It is a bridge between the forest behind and the beach in front, an edifice that carefully utilizes local materials in straw and wood to create a carefully considered ecological addition to the Nosy Be region
