L'Anse Aux EpinesTropical marine living on a Grenadian hilltop

This winter home for a couple of New Yorkers with Grenadian decent sits in a commanding position on the ridge of a hill overlooking L’Anse Aux Epines - or ‘Bay of Thorns’ - named due to the indigenous flora that used to be prolific in the area. The outlook from the site is panoramic and looks west across the bay, which is a popular naturally sheltered location for mooring sail boats, adjacent to the Prickly Bay Marina.

The island’s tropical marine climate dictated that our architecture embraced the predominant north-easterly trade winds. As such, we positioned the house full width across the site with the primary facade as an opening louvered screen to capture the cooling breeze positioned under a deep roof overhang to protect it from storms. The primary west elevation is structured into glazed bays which are open to the view of the harbour and sunset.

On approach to the villa from lower on the hill, local stone walls offer a neutral material palette to dissolve the home into the hill which sweep up and under the building, holding the landscape and setting the building into the ground at the crest of the the site.

Internally, a double height space sits at the centre of the plan and is laid out to perfectly frame a large painting by african artist Ibrahima Cissé, entitled 'Titre Ñaak’. There are multiple viewpoints to appreciate this large scale acrylic piece - it presents itself as the backdrop to the living room and also adjacent the upper floor corridor / bridge, which allows access to the four en-suite bedrooms which each face our west towards the bay.