A vertical wood slat facade sets the tone before you reach the glass behind it. The timber screen reads as a measured layer rather than a loud gesture, with evening light catching the narrow lines and the darker terrace surface below. That first impression matches the rest of the renovation: a house reorganized around view, light, and a steady indoor-outdoor flow.

A bungalow reworked around its strongest asset

The original 1968 bungalow had clear shortcomings, so the renovation started from necessity. The purchase was driven by the view and by the plan to turn the house into a home that could be adapted over time. Instead of treating the site as a backdrop, the design uses it as a guide. Large openings frame the landscape from deep inside the plan, and the living spaces keep facing outward rather than closing themselves off.

That outward focus is visible in the way the interior reads almost like an extension of the terrace. High windows pull in daylight and reduce the sense of boundary at the edges of the rooms. Sliding doors disappear into the walls, so the transition is not interrupted by tracks or frames. The result is not a dramatic gesture, but a sequence of clear sightlines that keep the room, the glazing, and the view in the same field.

Warm surfaces, measured lines

Natural material interiors shape the house from one end to the other. Brick appears in the garden wall and again inside, laid in a wild pattern that gives the surface a loose rhythm without becoming decorative. Afromosia cladding brings a darker grain to the exterior skin, then returns in a subtle parapet above the sun terrace, set against white render and a white aluminum roof edge. The palette stays restrained, but each surface has a distinct role in the composition.

Light and sightlines do more than brighten the rooms. They keep the house in contact with its surroundings throughout the day, with long views pulling attention outward and reflections softening the edges between inside and out. The design does not rely on one dominant material. Instead, brick, timber, glass, and plaster are placed so that each one meets the next without visual noise. That is where the project’s indoor-outdoor flow becomes most legible.

Custom interior design extends the renovation

The renovation was planned as a total concept, not just an architectural shell. Custom interior design was developed alongside the house and the garden, so the furniture, the rooms, and the planted edges follow the same logic. In the living area, the cabinet dimensions were set to the natural sequence of the Fibonacci curve. It is a precise move, but one you read through proportion rather than as a display of theory.

Lighting was handled with the same level of specificity. No off-the-shelf product could provide the continuous line of light needed both inside and outside, so the lighting was developed together with a specialist contractor. The result is a continuous light trough that ties the spaces together at night as clearly as the glazing does during the day. It is one of the few elements that literally crosses the threshold without breaking its line.

Glass, terraces, and the room beyond the wall

The terrace is not treated as a separate zone. It sits alongside the house and extends the living spaces without changing their material language. The broad glazing keeps the landscape present, while the timber and brick details hold the composition close to the house itself. From inside, the view stays wide and open; from outside, the vertical wood slat facade gives the volume a deliberate edge and filters the reading of the interior behind it.

This is where the project’s reference to Californian Modernism comes through most clearly, not as a style citation but as a way of linking plan, light, and outward focus. Materials continue from one side to the other. Surfaces shift, but the route does not. A room can open toward the terrace, then toward the garden wall, then toward the landscape beyond, without a hard break in the sequence.

Built structure and added upper level

The existing ground floor was built with traditional construction. Above it, the new work was realized with timber frame in order to avoid loading the supporting structure too heavily. That decision helped keep the renovation technically disciplined while still allowing the house to take on a different spatial character. The timber frame sits behind the finished layers, but its logic is present in the clean, controlled way the upper part of the home meets the lower one.

Afromosia and wild-bond brick give the finished envelope its texture. One surface catches light in long, fine lines; the other breaks it into irregular joints. Together they keep the house from reading as one smooth object. Instead, the elevations hold small shifts, shadow lines, and material changes that become more visible as the day moves across them.

Systems that stay out of the way

The technical equipment is extensive, but it remains background to the spatial work. Mechanical ventilation D, a heat pump, underfloor heating, solar shading, central vacuum cleaning, and home automation all support the house without turning it into a machine on display. Controls are present, but they do not compete with the view, the timber, or the brick. The systems sit underneath the project’s more visible decisions, where they can do their work quietly.

That approach matters because the renovation depends on clarity. Every part of the project, from the custom interior design to the landscape edge, is arranged to keep the house legible. You see the vertical wood slat facade first, then the glass behind it, then the way the rooms, terrace, and garden connect. The sequence is simple to read, even if the making of it was highly specific. In the end, the house is defined by those connections: between old structure and new layer, between interior surfaces and exterior walls, between daylight and the long view.