Glasshouse by the Sea

Marine Residence by Openspace Architecture

Contemporary house surrounded by trees featuring outdoor swimming pool

published on 30 April 2026

4 minutes read

Set above the West Vancouver waterfront and completed in 2022, Marine Residence by Openspace Architecture treats a dramatic site with unusual restraint. The project draws on the legacy of West Coast Modernism to make the landscape the primary event. Open planning, flat roofs, clerestory glazing and a strong indoor-outdoor connection are all present, but they are sharpened here into a quieter architectural proposition: a house defined by lightness, where structure is minimised, boundaries are thinned, and the experience of shelter is closely tied to sky, water and trees

Glass corridor overlooking landscape and water view

Ema Peter

That idea of lightness shapes the project at every scale. Across its 700 square metres, the house is organised as a long, horizontal composition that settles into the site instead of rising above it. As Eric Pettit, Senior Associate at Openspace Architecture, explains, “The design emphasises a long, horizontal massing, allowing guests to look over the house to the ocean and expansive southern sky”. The point is not simply formal. By keeping the mass low and stretched, the design preserves view lines, reduces the sense of bulk and allows the house to sit beneath the treeline with a calm, almost recessive presence.

The design emphasises a long, horizontal massing, allowing guests to look over the house to the ocean and expansive southern sky.
Eric Pettit
Senior Associate at Openspace Architecture

The same reasoning informs the building’s spatial and material decisions. Extensive glazing dissolves the perimeter, while open-plan living areas avoid unnecessary enclosure and allow light to travel deeply through the interior. Thin clerestory bands detach the upper bedroom volume from the floor below, giving parts of the house a hovering quality. Flat roof planes, concealed supports and carefully reduced structural elements all contribute to an architecture that feels deliberately dematerialised. Achieving that degree of precision required close collaboration with Hart+Tipton Construction, particularly where slender assemblies and concealed steel had to satisfy demanding structural, seismic and envelope requirements without compromising the design’s clarity.

Glass corridor in house overlooking ocean

Glass-walled living room with garden views and contemporary furniture

Open plan living and dining area with large windows and outdoor terrace

Open plan kitchen with large windows overlooking ocean and trees

If transparency and minimal form create visual lightness, materiality prevents the house from feeling abstract or cold. Board-formed concrete is central to that balance. Its surface retains the grain and rhythm of timber shuttering, bringing the natural texture and warmth of wood into a material more often associated with weight and permanence. Combined with timber soffits and cedar screening, it gives the house a tactile softness that grounds the sharper geometry. This is one of the project’s more convincing moves: it extends the language of West Coast Modernism without resorting to nostalgia, using contemporary detailing to maintain an atmosphere rooted in weather, texture and filtered light.

Minimalist concrete house and garden landscaping

Concrete wall beside shallow water feature

Concrete wall and timber staircase with glass balustrade

Open staircase in contemporary interior with large window and concrete walls

The connection with nature is not an afterthought but the basis of the project’s planning. Openspace Architecture handled the interiors as part of the same spatial logic, while Botanica Design developed the landscape to reinforce the sense of a secluded, nature-based hideaway. Terraces, planting and water features draw the surrounding ecology into daily life, and large sliding glass walls extend the main living spaces towards the ocean-facing exterior areas. A bridge crossing a stream to a separate study pavilion adds to the sense that movement through the property is also movement through the landscape. On the lower level, the primary suite is positioned as a protected retreat embedded in the site, where trees, water and direct outdoor access produce privacy through immersion rather than isolation.

Glass corridor connecting garden and interior space

Home office with glass walls, meeting table, workstations, bookshelf and garden view

Ema Peter

Sustainability is handled with similar discipline. Instead of relying on conspicuous environmental gestures, the house builds performance into its architecture through a high-performance envelope, controlled solar access, deep overhangs, generous daylight and a form calibrated to site and climate. In Marine Residence, lightness is more than an aesthetic ambition. It is a way of making a substantial house feel open, calm and closely attuned to its setting.