The Luxe Dune House in Cape Cod is Entirely Off-the-Grid
Dune House is reportedly scheduled for construction in late 2020.
The Dune House is a modern two story beachfront residence that is entirely off-the-grid - and not just because it's fully sustainable: it’s virtually invisible.
"The house is only recognisable from sea as a circle with a cut, it blends seamlessly with nature," Vural said. "The shoreline silhouette remains unchanged – the house is immersed, not imposed." The property, described as "subtractive architecture", is designed by Brooklyn-based boutique firm Studio Vural.
Architect Selim Vural spent summers vacationing in Cape Cod, and after a colourful nighttime fishing encounter with a rainbow squid, he thought: “If squids can power themselves, so should houses”.
A rainbow squid can change its colour at will using pigmented muscular sacs (chromatophores) on its skin which can be expanded or contracted at will producing colours and flowing patterns over its skin surface. Each chromatophore is controlled by a nerve, reflecting its complex nervous system.
Vural began imagining the concept of the Dune House as an autonomous nervous system to create a self-sustaining residence with high capacity power generation, using self-storing solar panels and miniature wind turbines which produce more clean energy than the house consumes.
Extra energy can be stored in "the latest oxidised-zinc batteries designed to be replaced as the technology advances".
The Dune House natural insulation thanks to its unique foundation design: 80% of the residence is burrowed into geothermal temperatures of sand with deep steel piles, blanketed with earth on all sides, featuring an "eco-concrete basin" beneath for temperature control, providing cooling in the summer and insulation in the winter months.
This submerged design is pulled through to the layout, divided into two levels with the living room and bedrooms downstairs, and an open kitchen and dining area upstairs, with a gap in the middle separating the upper area into two halves.
Water filtration and rainwater collection systems provide fresh drinking water. The sustainable design also incorporated recent innovations in absorptive building materials to offset carbon mass.
The open layout of the two-storey residence features white-painted concrete walls and polished concrete floors with expanses of triple-insulated glass set within metal frames.
For a minimal luxe aesthetic, bamboo has been used throughout for cabinetry and panelling and the breezeway is lined with porcelain planks.
It's what Mr. Vural calls “the next generation of hyper-sustainable houses which must be aggressively pursued to turn the tables on climate change.”