Make use of nice views

Why is it that so many homes seem to have been plopped onto their site with little or no consideration to the environment they inhabit, their windows appearing as decorative elements facing out to nothing at all while stellar views meet with the blank stare of a solid wall.

Photograph by: Mike Wakefield, North Shore News

Last weekend while exploring my Lynn Valley neighbourhood I was amazed by the number of homes in the area that boast truly remarkable gardens but was equally struck by how few of them actually capture this magnificent landscape splendor for their insides.

Creating a strong connection between the interior and exterior spaces of home, between the man-made and the natural environment, makes for a more livable home. Here on the North Shore our yearround warmer temperatures allow us to utilize our exterior spaces more than most other Canadian locales and it's well worth our while to think about how to better connect our interior and exterior worlds.

One of the simplest ways to do this is to strategically locate a window to capture a desirable view outside.

This might be a view to the mountains, to the ocean beyond or simply to a beautiful tree in your yard, but a conscious effort to frame something from the outside that can be experienced from the inside is the right idea.

Rather than thinking of windows as simply openings to let light in, think of them as picture frames of the world outside. Think about how you will inhabit spaces within the home and what opportunities you have to connect them with the outdoors. I've placed a small window near the floor on one occasion just to capture a view of a small rock garden. A peek-aboo window beside a child's bed that allows a private view, a horizontal window sandwiched between a kitchen counter and its upper cabinet creating a backsplash of garden rather than backsplash tile or vertical slot window that frames a beautiful tree while hiding the garden shed are all good examples of what I'm getting at. Ultimately, breaking away from the preconceived notion of the symmetrically placed window, three feet above the floor in each room is a good place to start.

When designing a new home both the landscape and the physical layout of the home should be designed in tandem as each, ideally, influences the other. Pre-existing homes should weigh the difficulty of landscape manipulation to household reconstruction. The mountain won't move but maybe that Japanese maple can.

Local West Coast modern architects like Ron Thom, Fred Hollingsworth and, of course, Arthur Erickson all loved to blur the line between inside and out, utilizing large planes of glass to capture magnificent views and ultimately to capture the world outside for the inhabitants within.

The concept of home need not be limited to the walls that define it. Understanding the connection between interior spaces of your home and the environment that surrounds it will help you capture some of that outside world as your own.

Entrance key to good layout

As the influential architect and theoretician Christopher Alexander states in his book A Pattern Language: "Placing the main entrance is perhaps the single most important step you can take during the evolution of a building plan."

If the main entry of a home has been placed in a good location the various spaces of a home will naturally fall into place. But if the entry is placed poorly a layout will become confused and disjointed as rooms and spaces attempt to adjust to this improper entry point.

Photograph by: NEWS photo, Mike Wakefield

I believe the concept of entry is far more than just the passing though the threshold of a front door, but rather the transition from one state of mind to another, the feeling that you've entered a place of shelter and security.

Entry to a home begins, in a very real sense, at your first sight of a building. The building appears and you are given an immediate cue to the location of the front entrance as you make your approach. There must be no confusion.

Upon arriving at the edge of the property there should be some sense of a threshold between sidewalk and entry, a line that when stepped across feels like you've moved from the public realm of the street to the more private sphere of the home. This can be treated in a number of ways, from literally stepping through a gateway or arbor to simply changing a level or a surface under foot, but the feeling created should be that of arrival.

As you approach the house through this semi-public zone between building and street your thoughts should further transition to the more private ones associated with home. A step up or down, an altering of texture, light or smell, or a change in direction are all elements that will engage you and bring about this transition.

The physical entrance to the home, the separation space between inside and out, needs to be a symbol of both entry and shelter. It should be differentiated from the rest of the building and provide a place of protection from the elements.

Upon entering the home the entrant should be provided a place to hang their jacket and shed their shoes without being forced to be involved in the activities of another space within the house. This entry space can be treated as something grand or something humble but regardless needs to feel like a space from which you begin your entry into the more private areas of the home rather than feel like you've already arrived in them.

Entering a house involves a psychological shift as much as it does a physical one. It's a transition that affects our thoughts and emotions as we leave the public realm of the street and enter into the private, intimate world of the home. Next time you enter your home, think how you can improve the experience.