Indoor, outdoor, in between

A large sliding door is not, on its own, indoor outdoor living. It simply moves the same weather line a metre further out. The real subject is the in between: the covered terrace, the verandah, the breezeway, the outdoor room that sits between the living space and the open garden.

The detail that makes a threshold disappear is level continuity. When one floor material runs from inside to out, and the door sill sits flush rather than as a raised track, the eye and the foot pass without a jolt. A high aluminium lip reads as a boundary; a flush sill reads as one continuous floor.

An outdoor space becomes a room when it is given a ceiling. A timber soffit, a slatted pergola or a deep eave carries shelter and shadow past the glass line, and running the same lining out from the interior makes inside and covered outside feel like one volume. On the coast that same eave does a second job: it shades the north glass from high summer sun while still letting the low winter sun reach in and warm the floor, so the poetic move and the thermal move are one detail.

On tight or overlooked sites, the courtyard is the workhorse of the in between. A side or internal court brings north light and sky into the middle of the plan, gives every room something green to face, and holds a sheltered pocket out of the wind, the street noise and the neighbours. It also becomes the intake for a summer sea breeze, drawing cool air through the house on the days you would rather not reach for the air conditioning.

The materials that edge these spaces are chosen for how they will age. Blackbutt and silvertop ash weather to a silver grey if left unoiled, which is an honest outcome to detail for rather than a finish to promise stays new. Near the salt we specify grade 316 stainless for fixings and hardware, and we let the frame and glazing, not the size of the opening, carry the winter comfort.

If you are weighing up a new home or a renovation on the coast, and you want the spaces between inside and out to earn their place, we would like to hear about your site. Start a conversation with Place.