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The Kimpton residence is a collaboration between the West Coast and the UK: Jay Kimpton is a UK citizen and his wife Kirsten heralds from Santa Cruz. Jay and his wife were pleased to have ex-Californians for architects, since their Salt Pond property shared an interesting feature of coastal California: sunsets over the water.
The house plan is tied intimately to the section, and this section is the quintessential water view. One approaches the house from the upslope side. On the downslope side is the Salt Pond, the views out, and the public spaces.
The west, or water view, exterior wall of the house traces a site contour in order to simultaneously address the sloped section issues that are a part of shorefront construction, and the view issues. By following a contour, Sealander Studio reduced the overall foundation depth and more compellingly fit the house to the landscape. The contour chosen produced an exterior west wall that was convex on the outside, so that windows on that wall faced west or southwest, depending on their location along the convex curve.
The structure uses insulating concrete forms (ICFs, or rigid insulation blocks grouted solid with concrete) for the basement and first floor, and structural insulating panels (SIPs) for the second floor and roof. This gave the building a very high-performance thermal design, since both systems take advantage of continuous insulation cavity systems, as opposed to stick-built’s discontinuous system.
The hearth and kitchen countertops are integral-colored concrete. The oak stair uses a dove-tail joint between the treads and guardrail pickets, which stiffens the guardrail without the use of an anchoring post.
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