Canada Bay Residence

The owners’ transition to parenthood was the catalyst for this smart extension to a suburban home on a site with significant overlooking challenges. Working with a constrained budget in mind, every element of this project was carefully considered to ensure that the maximum benefit was derived for the owners. The addition to the rear includes kitchen, living and dining spaces that are enclosed on adjacent sides with louvered, sliding walls. These ‘walls’ are constructed of glass and timber and maximum operability allows for the occupants to control thermal comfort; the conditions of the house can be manipulated to suit the weather. A combination of frosted, transparent and solid louvers control the amount of heat and light entering the house while providing privacy and ventilation. The first louvered wall slides back into the house to allow direct access to the adjacent courtyard from the living room. The courtyard is a paved space that extends the functional square metres of the living room, making it feel like a larger space when entertaining for example. The courtyard also houses the vertical herb garden. The second wall slides between the house and rear yard, allowing varying degrees of enclosure and expansion for the primary living space, children can run freely between the house and the rear yard, or these spaces can be closed off as required. The positioning and over-sized nature of the walls enable the family to enjoy a dynamic and dramatic connection to the outdoors, which adds rich spatial qualities to the internal of the house while enhancing the indoor-outdoor connection. The courtyard is given a sense of partial enclosure by a timber battened pergola and privacy screen with built in timber seats. The addition to the home has significantly increased the family’s use of their versatile, previously unused, outdoor spaces.