Glencairn House Addition

For this house addition in a mid-town neighbourhood, Paul Raff Studio creates an outdoor living environment defined by ease, continuity, and a sense of retreat. Designed as a reprieve from city bustle, the addition reorganizes the interior to connect directly to a generous terrace through large, multi-folding doors, allowing living space to extend outward with minimal threshold.

Customized stained Douglas fir clads the addition, introducing a natural material palette that continues across an upper cedar deck and a lower limestone patio, forming a cohesive relationship with the garden. The terrace is carefully programmed to support daily life, with areas for dining, lounging, storage, and a built-in kitchen that enables fluid indoor and outdoor use.

Passive strategies shape comfort throughout. Built-in screens provide privacy while filtering light and air, and a motorized retractable canopy in translucent fabric diffuses daylight and offers shade as needed. When open, the canopy reveals a clear geometric frame against the sky.

Two sets of steps connect the terrace to the garden, where locally sourced Eramosa limestone forms a gathering space. The result is a composed, adaptable environment that brings landscape, light, and living into close alignment.