Salt Spring Island

A sixteen acre farm designed by Patkau Architects located on Salt Spring Island, an island in the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island. The site is bisected from east to west by a long row of mature Douglas fir trees. There is a gentle slope falling across the site from south to north. The south half of the property is an orchard containing a variety of fruit trees; the north half of the property is a hay field.  The new house, called Villa Klaathem by the owners, extends 276 feet in a straight line along the south side of the fir trees.
The house is subdivided by a breezeway into a principal dwelling and guest quarters. The exterior of the house is clad in charcoal-colored fibre-cement panels which render the house almost invisible when seen against the dark green foliage of the fir trees. Interiors are lined with translucent acrylic panels and over forty skylights bathing the interior in natural sunlight.  Glazing within window openings, the largest of which is 78 feet wide, are fully retractable, so that during the prolonged fair weather of Salt Spring Island the house can be transformed into an open-air pavilion.

To see more by Patkau Architects images courtesy of Patkau Architects