28/08/2026
A house shaped around the light
We’ve recently presented the concept design for this Glendowie home, a renovation centred around one simple idea: creating a home that feels warm, generous and connected to outdoor spaces.
The existing house is extended along its roof line to create a new kitchen, scullery, living and dining area. These spaces open directly onto a covered outdoor deck, creating a natural extension of the living spaces and a place for the family to gather throughout the year.
An outdoor fire sits at the heart of the deck, giving the space another layer of warmth and making it a place to enjoy well beyond the summer months.
One of the key elements of the design is the white timber batten screen that wraps the deck. The battens provide privacy while still allowing the garden and sky to remain visible. More importantly, they filter the light, creating changing patterns of sun and shadow across the deck throughout the day.
We love the way this creates a sense of movement and warmth. The architecture itself becomes the experience.
The lawn is deliberately maintained as a generous piece of garden rather than being consumed by the extension. The design is about finding the right relationship between house, deck and garden, and making each part work harder for the way the family wants to live.
The architecture is contemporary and clean, but the approach is deliberately grounded in the existing home. Extending the roof line gives the addition a strong sense of continuity, while the new forms, proportions and detailing give the house a fresh identity.
At the centre of the design is the idea that a home should feel good at different times of the day, in different seasons and through the changing rhythms of family life.
Morning light in the kitchen. Long lunches that move outside. A quiet afternoon on the deck. Dinner around the fire as the evening cools.
These are the moments that architecture can create the conditions for.
Architecture for a Lifetime of Living
