MARK INGRAHAM: The Bahamas is a beautiful chain of islands.
This particular part of the island
is special because of the cliffs.
Looking straight out to sea, there's
nothing until you hit Morocco.
So you're looking at 4,000 miles of open ocean.
So I just had this yearning for a long time
to just completely create something of my own,
to build something, to swing a hammer
for really-- for the first time and be part of the process.
You know, it wasn't my intent necessarily
to build an off-the-grid home.
That's only a response to the need to have to do it.
They say that these cliffs are formed over,
you know, hundreds of thousands of years.
Just coming from the Sahara has helped build up the cliffs.
And it's really amazing to be sitting
on something that's hundreds of thousands of years old.
There's a spirituality that it evokes.
It's a special place.
[waves crashing]
Slow it down, Cecil.
Slow it down.
So we're at the thatch house.
The thatch house was conceived about five years
ago, actually, on a bar napkin.
My buddy and I were out sailing and came in
and had some ideas for--
for a small, you know, eco-friendly surf camp kind
of house, tiny footprint in an area
on Eleuthera in the Bahamas.
Cecil is a second-generation Bahamian builder,
and he's built some beautiful homes on the island.
But I really wanted to push Cecil to the limits,
so I came up with this-- the thatch house idea.
CECIL MCCARDY: [chuckles]
I said to Cecil, like, I want a thatch house,
like, actual thatch.
He's like, Mark, that's going to catch on fire.
[both laugh]m
Yeah, man.
MARK INGRAHAM: The site was challenging
because there is no power, no utilities, no water.
To find this actual location, it's
literally a machete in your hand and cutting
your way through the mangroves.
And I can't tell you what a magical feeling
it was to land at this little cove of a sandy beach wedged
between two rising cliffs.
The thatch house is an eco-friendly surf
camp which consists of one bedroom, one bath,
under 600 square feet.
The entrance to the thatch house starts here off the road.
This house is built over huge holes,
and we actually had to strategically
place all the pilings for the home
where there wouldn't be a hole.
Partially where the house sits is because we could find
rock to put the pilings in.
So this actual catwalk goes over one of the holes
that's at least 20 feet deep.
So it kind of is a fun feeling that you're walking over,
you know, these big voids of space,
and we're kind of cantilevered above the ground.
Another element that was important
was to bring in the thatch.
Thatch is something that you see a lot in the Bahamas.
And we thought it'd be fun just to put it on the vertical,
you know, walls of the house, which
is a place you don't normally see something like that.
So we found a recycled and sustainable product
that is working really great.
It's an imitation thatch.
It's probably the one element of the house that
requires the least maintenance.
It's just-- it's good to go.
The courtyard also serves as an entryway
to both of the pavilions.
And what's nice about the courtyard is
it also provides you shelter from the elements.
The living space, the primary living space, is here.
As you can see, we wanted it to be
as open and close to be blurring the lines
between inside and out.
So it's all open air, and we're facing a picture
window to capture the view.
And this room was intended to be as much that you
could be outside as possible.
There's a lot of mid-century architecture, which, you know,
embraces the outdoors and brings it in.
We wanted to incorporate that here.
This is a chair that was designed just
after the Second World War.
So when they designed this chair,
they actually reused parachute webbing.
Something about the older furniture, too,
is really well-made and I feel works really good in this space.
I grew up sailing.
Primarily, my dad taught me to sail when
I was around eight years old.
I took everything that we know from boating and brought it in.
Essentially, you're building a boat on land.
For example, the countertops are all varnished
with marine-grade varnish.
Also, the copper sink is fun because the salt and the air
turns it these beautiful colors, and it gets a beautiful patina.
So Dad always had us, you know--
he taught us the magic of the sea early on.
When I was an early teenager, I got into surfing.
I had always heard about this place in the Bahamas
that was just known for its surfing,
and it was just always stuck in the back of my mind.
My dad practiced law for 60 years.
I had the privilege to work with him.
When he saw me so interested in the Bahamas and these projects,
he saw what joy it brought me, and he encouraged it.
What he really says, Mark, screw law.
Go do your thing in the Bahamas.
Dad-- dad never got to see this house.
I wish he had.
And I hear his voice telling me, you know, follow your passion,
Mark.
[waves crashing]
You guys want to go first?
And so we have a small family-- my wife, Kate,
and my daughter, Lucy.
So we do live in Miami full-time, where we have careers
that are pretty demanding.
So, you know, this was built as a surf camp,
you know, for our family to come down just for a few days.
Really, this was all intended so you
could walk down in your backyard and jump in the ocean and surf.
Well, we feel very fortunate to be able to have this experience,
and it brings us closer as a family.
I also wanted it to be something that
faded away into the landscape.
The bedroom, for example, doesn't have
an ocean view like the kitchen.
The bedroom has a beautiful view of the sea
grapes and the cliffside.
When you walk into the bedroom, you can really--
you can smell the cedar that we use to build the structure.
We clad the house in cedar so that it would get this patina
and over time just improve.
You know, we were just far away enough
from the ocean to still hear it, but you're
not being shaken out of bed.
So we also wanted to keep the bathroom really simple.
And I'm of Cuban heritage, on my mom's side.
And something that they really do beautifully in Cuba
are the Cuban tiles.
So although it's very unusual and not really in keeping with
the architecture of the house or the time period,
these tiles were typically made more popular
in the '30s and '40s, but they're still
being made even in Miami.
Instead of windows, we put in screens,
enable us to capture all the breeze that comes through.
It's really nice to open up the screen
and have the breeze coming off the ocean and lay in bed.
And it's a nice garden view.
And just beyond the sea grapes is our solar panel array.
I wanted to keep hidden and separate from the house.
The house has these interesting what
we like to call spider legs.
The spider legs are basically served
to harness the pulley system, which
raises and lowers the flaps.
We wanted to figure out how we can cool the living space.
We conceived this idea that was inspired by a group
of architects in the 1950s.
One particular structure that they built
had these maneuverable flaps, which enabled the structure
to open up to the elements and give
you a real indoor-outdoor feel and also enable airflow.
So this is just before the advent of air conditioning.
They were raising up heavy wooden flaps.
They even used bowling balls as a counterweight.
Well, I didn't have any bowling balls in the Bahamas,
so we devised a cleat-and-pulley system, which is
easy for one person to operate.
I figured, let's find a material that will be equally
as strong and much lighter.
So we came-- we found these panels.
They have a fiberglass skin.
They're actually hurricane-rated and also fireproof.
So they make a lot of sense.
This is like a lab, a research and development lab,
for what works and what doesn't work.
This is an example of something that works.
This is a cleat that came from a marine salvage.
It's probably from the '50s or '60s.
It looks beautiful.
It has a patina to it, and will never corrode.
That's exhibit A. Let me show you exhibit B.
This is a brand-new modern cleat,
and you can see the heavy level of corrosion.
That demonstrates, like, how strong the elements are
and what we're dealing with.
Welcome to my kitchen.
Sometimes in the Bahamas, you've got to use what you can get.
So we're just using the house hammer.
Like this?
Yeah, yeah.
Just a little light tap.
Yeah.
- It's not working. - One more.
One more. There you go.
One more.
[exclaims]
OK, that's good.
So it's really wonderful when I'm in the space with my family
and we could sit down and enjoy a meal and watching the sea
and having that special moment with your family
where there's no distractions and everything is simple
for a moment.
But it turned out beautifully, I got to say.
And, I mean, the view is-- the view is the house, right?
So, I mean, that's kind of what you're building around.
We first started coming here, I would say, 17 years ago.
Lucy was just born.
But it's been special to see Lucy kind of grow up with this,
and she has amazing memories.
It's been a really rewarding.
Something hypnotic about being here is a rhythm.
It's the ocean and the sound of the ocean.
It's the wind.
It's the light.
It's the greenery all around you.
It's the blue of the sea and how it changes colors all day.
It makes you think about, what are
the important things in life?
Hopefully you could take those things home
and maybe even be a better person.