Modern Summer House
A modern summer house design on Cordova Bay perfect for windsurfing and swimming right off the open plan living area. A wall of sliding windows opens to expand the living space on to a patio bathed in sun.
On this small, sloping in lot Victoria BC, we wanted to create some privacy from the road and retain as much of the level garden adjacent to the beach as possible. The sloping lot meant that the height of the structure would be limited because of the local bylaws, so we produced a modern house plan with an inverted butterfly roof that kept the summer house within the local height restrictions. Because of the size of the lot, there was no room for a detached garage, so it needed to be incorporated into the house. This meant there would be little opportunity for natural light on the street side and because the lot slopes away from the street, the lower level main living areas of the house would need to be below grade as well. We addressed this by placing the stairs and a catwalk behind the garage along most of the length of the home for access to the bedrooms upstairs. In the original design, a glass roof and wall would allow ample light to penetrate both floors. Unfortunately, changes were made to the plan and the glass roof was replaced with a series of skylights. You can see the original design in the gallery. The affect is the same though, with lots of natural light washing down the rear wall to illuminate the rear of the lower floor. A sliding wall of windows in the open plan living area expands onto the patio only a few steps away from the beach. Polished concrete floors, bamboo and glass stairs and a large open plan are some of the features in this modern summer house.
