White render, a thatched roof and black window frames set the tone before the eye reaches the front elevation. The most striking element is the large glass frontage, about 8 metres wide, which can be opened fully. That move turns the front of the house into a broad threshold rather than a fixed wall, and it makes the indoor outdoor connection easy to read from the first glance.

White render and thatch in one clear silhouette

The white rendered volume sits under a roof of thatch, with the dark frame of the windows cutting through the pale surfaces. It is a direct contrast, but not a loud one. The roof line stays legible, the walls remain clean, and the black profiles give the openings a sharper edge. From the outside, the house reads as a compact composition with a strong horizontal emphasis, made lighter by the glass and the open view toward the terrace.

That contrast becomes more apparent when the front opening is closed. The glass sits flush enough to keep the façade calm, yet the scale still registers immediately. Once opened, the frontage releases the boundary between inside and outside. The house stops presenting a single front and starts working as a sequence of zones, with the terrace, entrance and interior all linked by the same wide opening.

A glass frontage that changes the way the house is used

The glass frontage is not a decorative feature added to the elevation. It is the main spatial gesture. At roughly 8 metres long, it spans enough width to alter how the living spaces relate to the garden side. With the folding system fully opened, the interior gains a direct route to the outside, and the opening behaves almost like a room that can be switched between closed and open conditions. The result is a clear indoor outdoor connection rather than a symbolic one.

Black window frames help define that edge. They sharpen the outline of the glass and prevent the large opening from dissolving into the white render. The frames also echo the darker tone of the roof details, so the house keeps its visual order even when the glazing is fully opened. In photographs, the reflection on the glass and the dark sections of the structure give the frontage depth, instead of letting it read as a flat plane.

The sheltered transition zone at the front

A glazed terrace cover sits in front of the main living zone and softens the transition between the house and the outside. It adds a second layer before the garden edge, so the move from interior to exterior does not happen in a single step. Under this cover, the lines of the structure stay visible, while the glazing keeps the view open. The space works as a filter: enough shelter to sit beneath, enough openness to keep the terrace connected to the rest of the house.

This kind of intermediate zone is especially useful here because the plot is bordered by trees on three sides. The setting is enclosed by nature, yet the front of the house faces south. The terrace therefore does more than fill a leftover strip of land. It becomes the place where light, view and access meet, positioned where the house can use the sun and still stay close to the entrance.

A terrace beside the entrance, not behind the house

Instead of placing the terrace at the back, the plan puts it beside the entrance. That choice changes the whole approach to the site. The outdoor area sits where movement already begins, so arriving, sitting down and stepping inside become part of the same route. The wood deck terrace gives that edge a lighter footing than stone or paving alone would have done, while the clean line of the deck keeps the outdoor zone tied to the architecture.

Because the land touches trees on three sides, the side terrace also takes advantage of the open southern front without exposing the house too much. It reads as a carefully claimed strip of outdoor space rather than a leftover courtyard. In views from the house, the decking, the glass and the tree line all sit within a narrow field of vision, which gives the outdoor area a defined scale. The terrace is small in strategy, not in effect.

Materials that keep the edges crisp

Stone accents and the wood deck terrace add texture where the house meets the ground. The stone appears in low walls and edge details, giving the outdoor zone weight at the perimeter. Against that, the wood introduces a more tactile surface underfoot. The combination is restrained, but it prevents the terrace from becoming visually empty. The materials mark the points where you sit, turn or step through, which is exactly where the house needs extra clarity.

Inside, the same discipline continues in the way the openings frame the view. Glass, dark profiles, white surfaces and the occasional stone element keep the composition calm without flattening it. The house does not rely on ornament. It uses proportion, opening and material contrast. That is most visible where the frontage folds open and the terrace line extends the room outward. The space becomes readable through movement, not through decoration.

Light, trees and a front that faces south

The southern orientation of the front gives the glass frontage its strongest argument. Light can reach deep into the opening, and the front becomes a usable face of the house rather than a purely representative one. With trees on three sides, the plot still feels screened, but the southern exposure allows the terrace and the main opening to stay active through the day. The house benefits from that tension between enclosure and openness.

Seen from outside, the white render reflects the daylight, while the thatch keeps the roof line soft against the sky. Seen from inside, the opening works as a broad frame for the terrace and the surrounding greenery. That is where the project feels most resolved: in the way the building uses a straightforward material palette to handle a complicated site. White walls, black frames, thatch and glass are enough to organise the whole composition.

Photography: Studio de Nooyer