Joel Sanders Architect

The Access House, a beach house on an island off the coast of Georgia, reconsiders a ubiquitous feature of the American vacation home: the picture window. Particularly at night, this insubstantial glass boundary can provoke feelings of defenselessness. The Access House solves that dilemma with the E:core, a high-tech take on the American hearth.

Monitors embedded in the E:core display television, video, and the internet, as well as closed-circuit images transmitted from surveillance cameras placed throughout the house. These multiple electronic windows complement actual views of the landscape and also function as a benevolent Big Brother that safeguards the house and its occupants. Yet, the Access House never loses sight of the tactile body. The E:core contains within its branchlike form building systems that ensure physical and sensual well-being: HVAC, bathroom fixtures, and kitchen appliances. In lieu of furniture, the E:core incorporates upholstered membranes on surfaces that touch the human skin, encouraging exchanges between ocular and haptic perception.