Launch Slideshow

My Flip

Play Slideshow >>

My Flip

• 

  http://www.remodeling.hw.net/Images/6b816014-f332-4de4-8508-4daa5501f2d9_tcm17-420545.jpg

  480

  Grey Crawford

  Using metal windows allows the frames to be minimal. This helps create a sense of continuity between inside and out. To reinforce this sense of interior/exterior continuity, the stone walls that the windows abut continue on both sides without interruption. Similarly, the flooring is the same material inside and out, with just a slight change of elevation to keep water from entering the home. These continuous floor and wall materials help create the feeling that inside and outside are one.

• 

  http://www.remodeling.hw.net/Images/2a4bd117-eb55-49ba-b779-6e7396add916_tcm17-420549.jpg

  480

  Grey Crawford

  In the following two photos, one showing the outside view and one showing the inside view, the architect has continued a pattern of ceiling joists from the interior of the house to the exterior, where they are used to support a lattice of wood strips that serve as a sunscreen.

• 

  http://www.remodeling.hw.net/Images/f546f719-eddd-4b6d-b570-c82b8658fa2a_tcm17-420552.jpg

  480

  Grey Crawford

  Interior view

 

1 of 1

 

Get the link to this image:

Copy

Have you ever noticed that most houses are situated on their lots rather like vehicles that have landed from outer space? Even if there's landscaping surrounding the house, there's often little or no consideration given to whether any of it can be seen from the interior. Windows are generally located in the middle of the wall of each room, with little thought given to the quality of the view from within the space.

Most of us love to feel connected to nature, and we benefit greatly from access to daylight and the beauty of living vegetation. But to imbue our homes with these inside-outside connections, it's best to design both environments together, arranging windows, doors, decks, porches, and terraces to take advantage of key features of the landscape. If there's a special tree on the property, for example, this may become the inspiration for a long view through the house and may even suggest the orientation and layout of the house on the lot.

Working with an existing home, you can design the surrounding landscape features to be seen from the main sitting places in the house, either through existing windows or by adding windows and doorways.

When both inside and outside work hand in hand, the result is a home that extends far beyond its actual walls.

Adapted with permission from Home by Design by Sarah Susanka, published by The Taunton Press (2004).