East House

Building houses near the coast can be a precarious proposition, as Peter Rose + Partners discovered when they were designing the East House. Set on a bluff in Martha's Vineyard, the home is made using ten-inch-thick cast concrete walls, formed into a series of six boxes that are joined by light wood framing and designed to be moved should the land it sits on erode away. Douglas Fir and Alaskan Cedar planked walls add some warmth to the interior, sliding oversized windows let in both sea breezes and ocean sounds while providing direct access to the patios, and a separate rooftop observation deck offers spectacular views of the water.

Photos: Chuck Choi, Matthew Snyder