Title: Battery Backus
Location of Proejct: Tybee Island, Georgia
Project Completion Date: April 7, 2020
Firm Name: Daniel E. Snyder Architect, P.C.

Short Description: On the rarest of sites, this house sits atop Battery Backus, an Endicott Period (1890-1910) gun battery that was built to defend the Savannah River inlet during the Spanish American War. At this vivid threshold between our military constructions and the dynamic sea, the house sits as basic as a tent yet as calibrated as binoculars. By focusing on the natural environment, in both construction and experience, it mediates between our destructive human history and the restorative beauty of nature, while reminding us of the sea’s ultimate victory.

Architect's Statement: The site presented its own unique set of challenges. In an ever more active hurricane zone, exacerbated by its location atop an oceanfront humanmade cliff of aging and failed concrete, with driving wind and rain, corrosive salt air, rising sea levels, and dynamic sand dunes, it demands special attention to the structural, thermal, and moisture protection requirements of good building. Being a contributing structure to the Fort Screven Historic District, the battery required sensitivity to the history of the site. Plus, the owners, a husband and wife, are ardent environmentalists. They insisted that the house be sustainable. It must address climate change. The challenge therefore was to build an environmentally responsive house that could withstand the site’s harsh conditions yet be sensitive to the historic nature of the battery. Plus, it must satisfy their aspirations for a home on this extraordinary site.

She suggested that we just put up a tent. He, with binoculars in hand, suggested that the house should aid the inhabitants in focusing on the natural environment. She agreed. Together, we aspire to do both. The results are outlined as follows.

The physical context required a unique set of responses. A structural engineer (for this small inexpensive house) consulted from the very beginning to the very end. The primary materials, Hardie panels, treated wood, FSC harvested hardwoods, stainless steel metals, Andersen’s highest-grade hurricane/impact resistant windows and doors, were all chosen and detailed to meet the site’s requirements and the owners’ budget.

But, at $350K, the budget was very tight. Plus, the building had to address their environmental concerns. Consequently, every building decision was based upon cost relative to value, where value (over time) was determined by its impact on energy consumption and sustainability. The first tactic was to design the smallest, cheapest, and simplest building possible. As basic as a tent, the house is a very efficient box. By shrinking the program into a few multi-functional, spartan spaces, at just 1,150 conditioned square feet, it drastically reduced construction cost, energy usage/cost, plus the overall carbon footprint. Other tactics to improve energy consumption included: 2x6 walls for thicker insulation; spray foam insulation for tighter seal with added depth in the roof; more efficient appliances; all LED lighting; large areas of energy efficient north facing glass requiring less artificial lighting; high efficiency, variable speed HVAC; smart house eco-system controls; heat pump hybrid type water heater, and a tighter house with fresh-air make-up. A full array of solar panels with battery backup is installed on the roof to supply the energy needs. Over the past nine months (Fall/Winter/Spring) the system produced more energy (4,997 kWh) than the house consumed (3,684 kWh). It is essentially at net-zero. Finally, the house was designed to higher wind requirements than required by code (Wind Exposure D instead of C). In a severe hurricane zone, making the building less vulnerable to destruction is the more sustainable, and over time, more economical thing to do.

But the history of the battery and the owners’ perspectives necessitated another response. The owner’s suggestion of a tent linked both. Historic photos show the battery surrounded by tents. While we couldn’t literally construct a tent, we could metaphorically. The subtle waves of Hardie panels allude to its flaps, the exposed wooden structure to its poles. The interiors are bifurcated with a wooden soffit. Like a tent’s zipper it holds the two halves together.

Additionally, we had to address the sites extraordinary views and the owners’ requirement to focus on nature. To be sure, the house has large areas of glass and carefully determined fenestration. But it required more than that. Not unlike the historic battery, the entry sequence of circuitous ascent and increasing constriction focuses the attention upon nature, and more specifically upon the Atlantic. On the penultimate landing, looking up, one peers through an oculus into the infinite sky. On the ultimate landing, in a small, darkened, semi-enclosed space, surrounded by unidentified doors, looking through a single vertical gap in a board wall, much like an artillery shield, one beholds the first view of the sea. This is the viewing slot. Like binoculars, it focuses the view upon the Atlantic. Our clients, more attuned to the environment than we, forewarn that it may be even more than that. With the site’s high winds, it’s potentially a whistle! The scene is accompanied with haunting sound.