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"I'm a very contextual person," says Faruk, who spent weekends sketching old houses in the neighborhood while designing the project. "I wanted to make the house fit into the flow of fields and dunes. The problem was how to make it sit well in the site. I studied what had been done right for the last 200 years."

The biggest challenge for Faruk was making a 6,000-square-foot home, anchored by 60 pilings sunk into the ground, look less massive. "I designed the house so it steps up to the dune slowly," he says. There is no grand entrance, just a modest front door protected from the wind that opens on to one of the many cross axes cutting through the house. (Doors and windows are lined up for good ventilation; Roy and Brenda did not want air conditioning.)

The cedar-shingled, cedar-roofed house with gables that you see above ground—purposely designed with no trees or shrubs to obstruct it—is T-shaped, with the top of the T facing the ocean. The main living areas, including the living room, dining area, kitchen and master bedroom suite, are located on the second floor to take advantage of the 360-degree views of the ocean and potato fields. Decks for sun bathing, outdoor dining and entertaining surround the house on three sides.

The ground floor has a four-bedroom guest suite and a children's wing with a living/media room, kitchenette, laundry and nanny's room. French doors facing the dunes open on to a lawn, and a two-story building in front serves as Brenda's office, film editing room and garage.