American beauty

This house in Jacksonville, Florida, is the epitome of this idea. The classic two-storey wood building spreads horizontally rather than vertically and has sloping roofs with wide overhangs. As is often the case, rather than featuring a grand facade, the house displays the element of luxury in its backyard, which opens out into a genuine outdoor home spa. This is the real heart of the house, an intimate area in which to relax and enjoy family life. Situated in a stunning panoramic position, the house is screened from prying eyes by a tall wooden fence that still allows a view of the lush surrounding vegetation. The swimming pool seems to act as the central focus of the complex, almost like a liquid perspective axis pointing to the main house and aligning a secondary building along the length of the pool. This small guest house, complete with changing rooms, replicates the design of the main house. The paving, with its neutral tones, provides a further connecting element between all these features and blends harmoniously with the white and ivory shades of the house. The porcelain floor (Atlas Concorde, Mark collection), which at first glance may suggest the luxury of marble, is actually an aesthetic fusion of several contemporary materials such as cement, resin, stone and various metals. The large format (60×60 cm) and textured surface of the tiles contribute to their natural look. The chosen colours are Gypsum, Pearl and Chrome. Chrome, being the darkest of the three, was used for the pool surround in order to emphasize the striking geometric motif of the rectangular pool with a circular spa feature at one end. Porcelain thus plays a strong communication role in this project, but its functional role is even more important. Its structured surface offers essential anti-slip qualities, while its 20 mm thickness provides a degree of mechanical strength, weather resistance and a capacity to withstand temperature changes that natural stone is unable to match.