At Home on the Edge With Bridge House

With their emerald forests and striking coastlines, British Columbia’s Gulf Islands often inspire a sense of escape within nature. It’s here that 91.0―also known as Bridge House―calls home. Designed by Omer Arbel Office, the creative studio of Bocci co-founder Omer Arbel, the house is shaped by the landscape. Seeming to float in the forest, 91.0 (Arbel numbers his projects in order of completion) feels like an extension of its natural surroundings.

The house not only responds to the environment as it exists today but also anticipates a future shaped by climate change. As its alternate name suggests, Bridge House is suspended between two rocky ridges on either side of a ferny gully that is expected to fill with water as sea levels continue to rise. “The house was conceived not only to endure these changes but also to establish a new and equally poetic relationship with the evolving site,” Arbel explains.

At the end of a tree-lined path, the entrance leads directly into a generous 82-foot corridor that threads through the home. Along the corridor, amply proportioned windows let in natural light and frame the outdoors. The end of the corridor opens into the kitchen and living area, which look out onto the shore and Pacific Ocean beyond.

Project 91.0 unfolds as a quiet choreography between land, water, and dwelling. Rather than imposing a singular condition, the house becomes a connective instrument—knitting together the shoreline, forest, meadow, and modified ground. Each zone carries its own atmosphere: shifts in light and vegetation subtly register as one moves through the home. “If one cuts a section through the site perpendicular to the waterline, four distinct environmental conditions appear, each with its own microecology and spatial character. The house crosses all four, allowing inhabitants to experience these shifts directly,” Arbel says.

Perhaps better known as the co-founder of Bocci, where his sculptural lighting explores the interplay of form, material, and light, Arbel has a foundation in architecture. This training remains central to his practice, even as his work moves fluidly across disciplines. With Omer Arbel Office, he explores the intersection of architecture, sculpture, and design—an approach that finds clear expression in 91.0, the most recent in a series of residential works which are primarily set in the Pacific Northwest.

“The material palette represents our interpretation of the ‘cabin in the woods’ typology,” Arbel says. The exterior of the home is clad in sandblasted cedar that highlights its grain and is intended to be reminiscent of stacked lumber. Textural and seemingly time-worn, the cedar also allows the home to feel like a natural extension of the rugged landscape.

Inside, polished concrete floors provide a neutral background, and strips of white Douglas fir line the walls. Built-in cabinetry and surfaces in rough-hewn fir provide warmth to contrast the muted tones. Smooth walnut shelving is based on Bocci’s 1.8 shelving system but was custom-designed to fit the needs of the home. The ceiling is finished in stained sandblasted cedar, continuing the look of the exterior cladding.

Unsurprisingly, the property includes Bocci lighting throughout. In the primary bedroom, the 28.7 Copper artfully cascades from the ceiling, as a series of glass pendants suspended by copper wire. In the guest areas, cast-glass and textural sconces are from Bocci’s 14 series, the brand’s iconic first piece created by Arbel in 2005. Elsewhere, lights such as the 16.20—a tree-like installation of pendants reminiscent of leaves that occupies the home’s entry—act as sculptural yet functional accents.

Bridge House was designed to be functional and adaptable for its inhabitants. The house has two wings. The main wing includes the kitchen, living room, and utility space, as well as the primary bedroom, which sits above the gully. When the owners have guests, the second wing can be opened to provide additional living space with two bedrooms and a bunk room.. The clients desired a home that captures “the full character of the site, including the forest canopy,” Arbel explains. The indoor-outdoor connection is also emphasized in the outdoor spaces, such as the generous stone-tiled patio that extends from the living room and overlooks the water.

Bridge House seems to emerge from the terrain rather than be imposed on it. Over time, it is intended to weather and settle further into its surroundings, allowing natural processes to complete the work that Arbel began. In this way, 91.0 positions itself as an evolving condition, a creative response to the landscape, ultimately inseparable from the environment it inhabits.

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