Designing a Contemporary Coastal Home Around Cornwall Sea Views
From the outset, the architectural concept focused on making the most of the site’s exceptional cornish location. The home was designed to sit comfortably within the dune landscape, with the building mass broken into distinct forms to reduce its visual impact and retain through-views towards the shoreline.
The primary living spaces were positioned along the west-facing elevation, where broad coastal panoramas and dramatic sunsets could be fully appreciated. A flowing arrangement of kitchen, dining and living spaces encourages family interaction while maintaining visual connection to the sea throughout the day. The architecture was intentionally understated, allowing the landscape to provide the drama while the building acts as a quiet frame for the view.
Large glazed openings were essential to this approach. Rather than treating glazing as individual windows and doors, the design uses extensive glass elevations as part of the architectural composition, creating a continuous relationship between interior spaces and the surrounding coastline.
Responding to Coastal Exposure and Performance Requirements of Cornwall Buildings
The exposed nature of the site in Mawgan Porth introduced a series of technical challenges. Positioned close to the Atlantic coastline, the glazing needed to withstand strong winds, driving rain and the long-term effects of a marine environment while maintaining exceptional thermal and weather performance.
At the same time, the architects wanted slim framed glazing with large uninterrupted panes to maximise the visual connection to the sea. Achieving these generous openings without compromising performance required careful system selection. Different elevations of the building demanded different levels of weather resistance and thermal capability, particularly on the principal west-facing façade where exposure conditions were most severe.
The project also required a dramatic double-height glazed feature within the centre of the home, combining sliding and fixed elements within a single architectural composition while maintaining perfectly aligned sightlines between floors.
How the minimal windows® Systems Were Integrated to Resolve the Project Challenges
The glazing package combines both minimal windows® and minimal windows® 4+ systems, allowing the project team to apply the most appropriate performance specification to each elevation while maintaining a consistent appearance throughout the building.
The principal architectural feature is the double-height coastal-facing elevation positioned within the central vestibule and first floor landing. This installation combines a 7m wide by 2.8m high minimal windows® 4+ sliding door with a matching fixed glazed elevation above. The sliding door uses a bi-parting configuration, allowing the central panels to move away from one another while maintaining exceptional views when closed.
To reinforce the visual continuity of the double-height façade, the interlock positions of the fixed glazing above were aligned precisely with the sliding door configuration below. This creates the appearance of a single, uninterrupted glass wall reaching across both floors.
Elsewhere in the house, additional minimal windows® sliding systems provide access from the kitchen, dining spaces and bedrooms onto terraces and external seating areas. Pocket sliding configurations were also incorporated where appropriate, maximising clear openings and allowing rooms to extend naturally towards the outdoors.
Triple glazing was utilised on the most exposed elevations, ensuring the building achieved the high levels of performance required for its coastal setting while maintaining the clean aesthetic and slim sightlines that define the minimal windows® range.
An Award-Winning Cornish Home Defined by Coastal Glazing
Sand Dunes demonstrates how contemporary glazing can strengthen the relationship between architecture and landscape. The use of coastal facing sliding doors in Mawgan Porth allows the building to engage fully with its setting, framing expansive sea views while delivering the durability and performance required for an exposed waterfront location.
The completed home has received widespread recognition for its design, winning major architectural and residential awards while becoming one of the most recognisable contemporary homes on the Cornish coastline. The project illustrates how carefully specified glazing can contribute not only to the performance of a building, but also to the way it is experienced.
For architects and developers designing coastal homes, Sand Dunes provides a compelling example of how minimal windows® systems can combine large scale glazing, exceptional performance and refined architectural detailing to create memorable living environments.
