Captains house

Vector Architects reinforces and transforms a leaking seaside home in Fujian — adding a vaulted third floor, window-furniture frames, and structural concrete that opens new spatial possibilities.

There is a particular kind of architectural project that begins not with a vision but with a structural crisis. Captain's House, on the southeast end of Huangqi Peninsula in Fujian Province, China, had spent over twenty years absorbing the damp and erosive reality of a seaside location. Water had been leaking through its walls. The original brick masonry structure had become unsafe. When the captain who owned the house approached Vector Architects, the brief was both urgent and specific: stabilise the building, address the water damage, and add a third floor to accommodate the family's current life.

The practice's response was elegant in its pragmatism. Rather than demolish or rebuild, they added a twelve-centimetre layer of concrete to the original brick masonry walls — a structural reinforcement strategy that brought not only stability but, by expanding the wall thickness, new spatial potential throughout the house. Layout adjustments followed: both bathrooms on the first and second floors were moved from the sea-facing side to the side adjacent to the neighbouring building, freeing the living room, dining room, and master bedroom for unobstructed views of the sea, more natural light, and better ventilation.

"We hope the house gradually becomes the carrier of emotion for the captain's family, and gives deserved dignity and decency to the daily life of ordinary people." — Vector Architects

The window openings were reconsidered entirely. New concrete frames project from the outer wall, preventing rainwater from seeping in from the wall surface — a response to the building's primary failure mode — while the thickness of these frames was then designed into what Vector Architects calls a window-furniture system: no longer a simple opening, but a medium space positioned between the interior and the natural world outside, functioning as threshold, seat, storage, and frame simultaneously.

The third floor is vaulted. The form was chosen for its resistance to water — a vault's geometry prevents rainwater from gathering — but it does something more than keep the rain out. It is directional, connecting two radically different views of the sea: the serene horizon on one side, the busy working port on the other. The floor functions as multifunctional living space — accommodating visiting family and friends, doubling as a gym — and, since the captain's family is Christian, it is also intended to serve as a family chapel. At dusk, light filters through translucent glass blocks across the vault's interior.

Vector Architects closes the project text with a wish: that the house gradually becomes the carrier of emotion for the captain's family, and gives deserved dignity and decency to the daily life of ordinary people. It is, in its way, a remarkably complete statement of what architecture at this scale can aspire to.

Key takeaways

• Vector Architects solved Captain's House's twenty-year water damage problem by adding a twelve-centimetre concrete layer to the original brick masonry walls — a structural reinforcement that simultaneously created new spatial potential, allowing bathrooms to be relocated away from the sea-facing side and freeing the living, dining, and bedroom areas for unobstructed views, natural light, and ventilation.
• New concrete window frames projecting from the outer wall prevent rain penetration at the wall-window junction while their thickness is designed as a window-furniture system — a medium space between interior and exterior that functions simultaneously as threshold, seat, and framing device, transforming what was a structural failure point into the building's most considered spatial element.
• The vaulted third floor was chosen for its water-shedding geometry and its directional quality, connecting two contrasting faces of the sea — serene horizon and working port — in a multifunctional space that serves as guest accommodation, gym, and family chapel, its vaulted interior lit at dusk by light filtering through translucent glass blocks.