Sandcastle-Inspired Luxury: Modern Gothic Vacation Home in Alys Beach, Florida

Inspired by a sandcastle, this vacation home, in the planned community of Alys Beach, Florida, represents the singular vision of the architect, Jeffrey Dungan.

“After some initial meetings and sketches, the client pretty much gave me carte blanche,” he says. “We clicked, and he told me to design the house that I would like to live in.”

The result, a white stucco Modern Gothic residence that hints at the ecclesiastical, is what Dungan calls “a really cool place to recharge on long weekends and vacations.”

A large multi-paned Gothic spire gives the front façade the feel of a cathedral but with a modern ethos.

The heart of the home is the central court – yard that wraps around the four-level structure like a shawl. Dungan conceived it to provide privacy from neighboring houses and to serve as an entertainment hub. To that end, it’s filled with a variety of over-the-top features that channel a boutique resort.

The roof terrace is accessed via the marble waterfall wall via a stair from the lower courtyard, where he placed a swimming pool.

The circular bottom of the third-floor hot tub forms a skylight that illuminates the bar on the second floor and opens to the swimming pool. A 14-foot marble wall beside a marble stairway becomes a gently splashing waterfall that’s made to be touched and heard, as people flow up and down.

“Overall, there’s a bit of a fantastical, kind of James Bond feel to the house,” Dungan says. Throughout the house, he employed sculptural Gothic arches to add classical drama and to serve as serene grounding architectural details.

The kitchen, for example, is set in an arched nook that makes it separate yet still visually connected to the living room, which is made of board-formed concrete with a three-sided fireplace, creating a communal gathering spot that opens to the courtyard.

In the primary bedroom suite, groined arches form a celestial-like ceiling for the bed, which looks as though it’s under the protection of heaven.

The indoor spaces graciously open to the outdoors, seamlessly connecting to a private, almost secret landscape.

Natural materials, including marble, oak, and linen, are designed to soothe the senses. But even they push the envelope. In the primary bath, which is appointed with a burnished-silver metal soaking tub, the wall is clad in black and white marble whose ink-jet pattern gives it the quality of graffiti or a work of abstract art worthy of a luxury gallery; in this house, the walls are the art.

One of the few specific items the client re – quested was an office, a space that Dungan chose to make different from all the others in the house.

In contrast to the snowy whiteness of the rest of the interior and exterior of the house, the office is black, its walls and ceilings covered in wood burned in the ancient Japanese technique of Shou Sugi Ban.

The treatment turns the space into a protective womb, a sanctuary for relaxation as well as work.

The project, which took four years, was challenging. Dungan, who has designed other houses for the community, incorporated Alys Beach’s complex urbanism with rules on height, style, color, and mate – rials into the house without compromising his ideas.

He had more leeway in this house than the others he designed in Alys Beach because the 80-foot-square lot—two adjoining plots—was exceptionally large. The fact that the client imposed virtually no limitations actually made the project particularly difficult.

“Design is the search for limitations,” Dungan says. “If I can do any – thing, I almost can’t find a place to begin.”

And, he adds, he had to keep asking himself, “How can I create this place, and what am I basing my decisions on?”

All in all, though, he concedes, “It was a great problem to have.” When the residence was completed, Dungan was a little reluctant to turn over the keys. “I would live in it in a second,” he says. “As a vacation place, you feel like you’re in a whole other world.”

KEY SUPPLIERS: Architect: Jeffrey Dungan Architects; Project Archi – tect: Joel Solomon Interior Design: Michelle Cone Furnishings: Beth Webb and Julia Starr Sanford Landscape Design: Gary Mitchell Builder: Gulfview Construction.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT jeffreydungan.com

“Design is the search for limitations. If I can do anything, I almost can’t find a place to begin.” – Jeffrey Dungan