A house scribed into its site, at once both embedded into and hovering over the prominent rock formation.

Interior Design: Josie Berube
Landscape Design: Donohoe Living Landscapes
Build: Durfeld Constructors

Photos: Jordan Plumb and Mark Simone

The forever home for a retired couple, designed to host family gatherings, for recreation, and for aging in place.

Interior Design: Kaia Creative
Landscape Design: Ron Rule Consultants
Build: Naikoon Contracting
Interior photos: Steve Woods, Mark Simone
Exterior photos: Mark Simone

A 3800sf new home in Vancouver’s west side.

Early concept work for a new Whistler home.

A robust yet elegant Whistler home with westerly views across the valley.

Build: Ringmaster Construction
Interior Design: Ethan Goosen Design

A unique home that straddles two waterfront lots, anticipating future scenarios for the owners’ evolving use of the site.

This home maintains a subtle yet bold presence in its North Vancouver neighbourhood. The home acts as a pinch point between the street and the forested ravine, providing a backdrop for a PNW back yard oasis.

Despite being located wholly in front of the house, the side entry two car garage does not feel dominant, but acts more as a series of planes that pull the visitor towards the home’s front entry. The garage door is completely hidden within the cladding when closed.

There is a compression of space as you descend three stairs towards the main entry, then once inside the home, the spaces open up and step down in front of you. At the back of the house, the kitchen, dining room and living room all walk out to a series of connected patios at grade. The outdoor living spaces are complemented by the thoughtfully landscaped yard, which seamlessly interweaves with the natural vegetation of the ravine.

Interior Design: Erin Stevenson Design
Build: Naikoon Contracting
Photos: Sama Jim Canzian and Mark Simone

This is one of the last original undeveloped lots in the Brio neighbourhood in Whistler. And while the views from the top of the site are stunning, the idea of putting a house here is daunting by any measure.

Adding to the project’s complexity is Whistler’s short building season, a conservative budget, and the challenge of making a house fit on this site within the standard municipal zoning regulations.

The decision was to pull the house into two separate wings; a three level volume carved into the rock at street level, and a two level volume that straddles the ridge and captures the views to the north.

The envelope of the house is a combination of ICF walls below grade and prefabricated panels above grade. The result is a home with a much better thermal performance than what would be achieved through conventional framing and forming, and a much faster process to getting the building weather tight.

Interior Design: Lauren Ritz Design
Structural Engineering: Twin Peaks Engineering
Build: Gavan Construction
Photos: Ema Peter and Mark Simone

A family weekend home in Whistler’s White Gold neighbourhood, overlooking Fitzsimmons creek and with peek a boo views to Blackomb.

A small, landscaped courtyard opens up the middle of the house, allowing southern light to enter the home from various angles. A series of skylights ensures that the interior spaces are bright throughout the entire year.

The home’s distinct profile pays homage to the older eclectic mountain cabins, albeit with a much more robust envelope built to very high performance levels as a trade-off for the vaulted spaces and skylights.

Build: Balmoral Construction
Photography: Steve Woods, Mark Simone

A robust wintery cabin nestled into a forested Whistler setting.

This waterfront home sits on a relatively narrow, deep lot on Okanagan Lake. While the views are north facing, to allow for more dynamic natural lighting, the masssing of the house has been stretched out around a series of small courtyards.

Landscape Design: Donohoe Living Landscapes
Build: CCI-Fairmile
Photos: Mark Simone & Luke Potter

The site is located on the eastern shore of Vancouver Island, looking out over the Strait of Georgia towards the coastal mountains of British Columbia and backing onto a forested parkland, inhabited by deer and eagles. The undulating topography consists of a variety of ridges and valleys, and is peppered with mature coastal trees such as Gary Oak, Arbutus, and Douglas Fir.

The guiding ethos of the design was to create a home that feels respectful of and harmonious with the site. The form of the home takes its cues from the peaks and valleys of the topography, and while it is situated at a vantage point that optimizes the view, it does not feel dominant within the landscape. Mature trees were carefully preserved around the home to maintain the character of the site, help frame views, and provide shading from the intense summer sun.

The home seeks to capture the natural experiences of the site, with the expansive views of the water and surrounding forest, the ocean breezes, the dappled sunlight through the tree canopy, the sound of the waves on the rocky shoreline and the high pitched calls of the resident eagles.

The main living area is framed with large sliding doors that open up the space on opposite sides, and ridge skylights overhead, which allow the sensations of the ocean breezes and daylight to filter through the home. Patios on either side of the living space allow for unique outdoor experiences, either facing the water, or in a more sheltered environment, protected by the structure. The master bedroom and a Juliette balcony are located on the upper level and provide an elevated view over the water.

Interior Design: Motto Interior Design
Build: Alair Homes
Photos: Peter Powles, Mark Simone

Mid-century modern in spirit, this home is designed to accommodate an open, social family atmosphere.  The main level is organized around a central kitchen-dining area which can be expanded to accommodate extended family gatherings.  A large covered outdoor space is connected to the dining and living areas, and further opens to the garden beyond.

Careful attention was paid to window composition so as to maintain a sense of privacy from within while providing every room with a view to either the forested ravine or the North Shore mountains.  Variation in the height of spaces allows for a dynamic quality of natural light and ventilation.

Interior Design: Sophie Burke Design
Build: Blackfish Homes
Photos: Ema Peter

Situated at the south end of a cul de sac, on an elevated fingertip of land, the site is bounded on three sides by dense forest and a steep slope down to converging riverbeds.  The site presented views to Grouse mountain and soft natural light to the north, while the privacy of the forest to the south created an opportunity for the home to open up and blur the boundary between indoor and outdoor space. The butterfly roof captures the distant mountain summit and allows more natural light into the home.

Photos: Mark Simone

Inspired by the iconic rugged coastal shorelines of BC, the house is meant to age gracefully into its oceanfront surroundings. The two storey massing steps down the slope and opens up towards the water, allowing every room in the house to share the dramatic north-west views.

Completion photos coming soon…

This 2100 sf home sits in a forested three acre site north of Pemberton.  It is designed for a couple who sought ultimate privacy, as well as a strong connection to the surrounding landscape.  The house is approached by a long meandering gravel driveway. The thick north wall of the house is made of boardform concrete, punctuated by glazed apertures, and functions as the hearth and outdoor log storage for the cold winter months.  The front door is hidden from immediate view, but once entering the house, the main space opens up to the south and clerestory windows provide a visual connection to the exterior in all directions.

Photos: Mark Simone

This modest cabin sits atop the highest point on Mayne Island, sharing beautiful views to the north over the Gulf Islands with eagles and ospreys. The roof is tilted up to the south to capture the low angle winter sun.

Sitting on the top of a bluff overlooking Tsawassen Bay, this house utlilizes a reverse floor plan, with the main living spaces and master bedroom up, and the secondary bedrooms, rec room, and workshop on the main level. The upper level massing is designed to create a wind break for outdoor dining and sunset viewing.

The design of this house began with one of the last remaining undeveloped lots in an established neighbourhood.  On the crest of the street, with a 43’ vertical foot drop from the road, this site in the Garibaldi Highlands offers unparalleled views of the Howe Sound and surrounding coastal mountains. Yet due to its challenging topography, it had been left untouched for decades.

The house literally bridges the realm between the natural site topography and the engineered level yard created by a 6m high retaining wall.  

Accessed via a steel bridge supported by the exposed bedrock, the one storey form of the house only reveals its multiple levels as you approach the entry and move indoors, then outdoors again onto the treetop deck.

Cladding materials were chosen to pronounce the forms as well as to provide definition to exterior spaces.  Deep overhangs were a necessity to provide shelter from the very wet and sunny climate.

A house for a glazier on an outrageously steep site overlooking the Howe Sound on Bowen Island.

A 5000 sf home that blurs the threshold between interior and exterior space. Unfortunately the project never broke ground.

A new home on a steep site overlooking Douglas Park and the Vancouver skyline.

The project fell victim to the rapidly rising land values in Vancouver.

A 680sf Vancouver laneway house designed in conjunction with the new primary residence.  The lane house provides backyard privacy and extends the livable space of the main house by creating a sunny courtyard.