Indoor and outdoor spaces blend harmoniously in this restored Edwardian home in Vancouver. 

In the historic Shaughnessy neighbourhood, in Vancouver, landscape architects Paul Sangha Creative collaborated with Measured Architecture to renovate this 4,500 square foot grand 1910 Edwardian-era Foursquare house, with the goal of using contemporary interventions to draw the building into the present. 

The clients – a family of four, including the CEO of a notable fashion brand, her husband, and their two young boys – wanted to balance the heritage preservation of the historical property with an outdoor lifestyle, and modern comforts and aesthetics. 

“As this project was a renovation to a significant heritage four-square floor plan composition, we worked to open up the circulation between each of those quadrants to increase access of light and air throughout the house and allow for a new canvas to emerge for the threading of a contemporary intervention,” says Clinton Cuddington, one of the principals at Measured Architecture.

The house has four levels with an en suite master bedroom on the top level; children’s bedroom and bathroom on the third; and the main living area, dining, and kitchen on the second. A sauna, wine cellar, mud room, home office, and media room are located in the basement, and there is also an independent pool house with parking and a gym on top.

An interior wall was torn down to create an open atrium that spans all four levels. This atrium features an uninterrupted racing stripe of glass that unifies the rear façade and becomes an illuminated lantern wall at night.

In the daytime, this feature floods the house with light and allows for views from the front door right out to the back yard, past a contemporary four-storey steel staircase. An enclosed glass cupola on the top floor is reminiscent of the widow’s walks – a railed rooftop platform with an inner cupola – that were popular in Edwardian times.

In contrast to the preservation of much of the main home’s original exterior appearance, the cornerstone of the project’s second phase was a modern, steel-clad cubic structure. The top portion of this structure houses a two-car garage and a wall-mounted bicycle storage system. Below that, the pool house stands in cool relief as a modernist geometric form angling on the perpendicular to the infinity pool edge.

“The upper exterior portion of the structure is clad in mirrors, which not only camouflages the vehicles parked inside the garage, but also effectively multiplies the lush backyard plantings. Black solar panels were integrated into the top of the structure to heat the pool four seasons of the year,” Cuddington says. 

Another important request by the clients was for dynamic outdoor spaces that would cater to their active lifestyle, and their brief included specific requests for a basketball court at the garage entrance.

To meet their desires, Paul Sangha Creative designed a concrete driveway with pavers that not only guides visitors, but also serves as a functional space for basketball and recreational activities. It also created a yoga terrace outside the client's home office, which is seamlessly interconnected to the spa and pool patio.

The pool has been integrated as a central element, becoming a focal point of the outdoor space. Also part of the landscape architecture is a custom-designed sculptural play structure by a rope artist, which adds a unique and artistic touch to the family-friendly environment.

“We collaborated closely with the clients and the team at Measured Architecture to ensure the outdoor spaces complemented the indoor areas. A central glass spine, a prominent feature of the architecture, was extended into the landscape through a reflective pool following the same axis, visually connecting the interior and exterior,” says Vikas Tanwar, project lead and senior landscape architect at Paul Sangha Creative, who included diverse zones such as a sports court and pavilion, a trellised walkway, a poolside lounge area, and pathways to a play structure and pool house within a naturalised treed area.

The project stands out for its unique design elements and thoughtful integration into the fabric of the surrounding landscape and one of Vancouver’s oldest historic residential communities.

Remaining true to the traditional four-square typology of the house, the team at Paul Sangha Creative retained the U-shaped driveway and entry sequence into the home, enhancing it with layered plantings and improving privacy to create a pedestrian-oriented space.

Four paperbark maples at the front entrance create a captivating gateway into the home, while the gates and entry metalwork details provide a contemporary contrast to the traditional elements on the home’s façade. 

Further into the garden, impressive-sized granite skin slabs have been artfully joined to form a natural spa, as well as a firepit off the pool terrace. Both elements were quarried and sourced from Squamish, British Columbia.

“These slabs become a playful interjection and juxtaposition against the various other materials in the garden, infusing a touch of ‘Pacific Northwest’ into the space,” Tanwar says.

“The project's approach to retaining grades is unique, as it utilises large feature boulders instead of traditional retaining walls. This creates a more naturalised transition through the landscape, enhancing the overall organic feel of the design and creating a more integrated relationship between the built environment and the natural surroundings.”

The interior spaces have been designed to open to the terraces on all levels, further blurring the boundaries between indoors and outdoors. The outdoor furniture by RODA was also carefully selected to extend the colour scheme and lines of the interior spaces, creating a cohesive design language.

“The project aims to strike a thoughtful balance between contemporary amenities for a young family in a tranquil setting that sensitively integrates into the historic fabric of the neighbourhood,” Tanwar says.

“The garden is formed by a series of varied zones and programme elements that all become unified under a harmonious palette of colours, materials and verdant plantings rooted in the Pacific Northwest, exuding a sense of much-needed serenity and calm in the heart of the bustling city.”