Nature infused
It's fair to say summer is best enjoyed outdoors – but who wants to leave the comfort of indoors behind? Here are some different ways to achieve indoor-outdoor connections
Okay, we're not on the equator, so creating a sheltered, relaxed connection to nature is often best written into the architecture – here are some inspirational ways houses and their outdoor environments enjoy a free and easy friendship
1. Living (room) sculpture
Abramson Architects
At the edge of the living room in this art-infused home, a melaleuca tree in an open-top glass case extends upwards through a void in the roof – thanks to operable sliders, the side of the voluminous living space offers an even more direct natural connection.
2. The black lagoon – colour coded
Ian Barker Gardens
The colour/tone black is seen on the window frames of the extension of this home, on the furniture and continues on the exposed steel frame of the outdoor room.
Using black ceramic tiles for the swimming pool interior, spa and infinity edge creates a continuity that ties the landscape to the built structures.
3. Doll's house
Turner Road Architecture
This living zone with its spectacular ceiling opens up like a doll's house to the scenery courtesy of wall-to-wall sliders – the main living area, open-plan kitchen, living and dining spaces all face towards a vista of established trees and foliage.
4. Listen to the falling rain
K2LD Architects
This home is nature infused at its very heart.
A first level lawn features a punctuation in the centre – which opens up as a water courtyard at basement level.
The sound of the falling water from the first floor to the basement evokes a sense of calmness within the house.
5. Indoor-outdoor food
Damian Hannah, German Kitchens
Indoor-outdoor flow was important for food as well as people in regard to this home – this social agenda was catered to with large servery windows and an inside-to-out stone benchtop.
6. Sky's the limit
Kamermans Architects
There's experiencing the outdoors, and then there's absorbing the feeling of the elements while still indoors – this home opens to its rugged mountainscape while glazed walls continue as skylights overhead for an even more immersive feel.
7. Stepping into summer
Daniel Lomma Design
Perfect for entertaining, the outdoor living space here is an extension of the home’s internal main living area – accessed through large glass sliding doors, it includes a fireplace and bar access. However, you'd watch your footing as the space seems to almost step into the pool as well.
8. The stage is set
Cox Architects
Those old homes – awful connections to the outdoors!
Here, the renovation budget dictated a facelift of the existing structure rather than a rebuild so the design is a sort of stage-set, behind which a lot of the original building still sits – the new light-filled glazed wall reaches out to the garden views while, courtesy of the new skylights, our nearest star reaches in, warming the floor tiles.
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