This addition/renovation project transforms a modest two storey house in West Vancouver into an open, light-filled dwelling which captures a beautiful view offered through its position on a sloped site overlooking Burrard Inlet and the city of Vancouver to the south. The living and kitchen spaces on the house’s main floor are reorganized into an open plan arrangement with a fully glazed, south-facing window wall which opens onto a deck, overlooking a small garden and panoramic view. Organized along the view, the upper floor space provides several ways of modulating the connection between the house’s interior and the exterior deck space and views beyond through large glass doors and a unique exterior curtain system. The system allows for variations in privacy and control of shading in the summer and for the creation of a variety of interior/exterior zones of varying degrees of privacy. The curtain features solar cells that capture energy from the sun and use it to power hundreds of tiny LED lights which are woven into the curtain system’s fabric. At night, the lights activate and create softly glowing points of light which can be adjusted by the owners.

The openness and clear views to the exterior that characterize the upper floor are contrasted on the lower floor by more diffuse natural lighting (akin to the ‘forest floor’) and intimate connections to exterior landscaped garden spaces.