Tucked behind an existing brick home, Oliver's backyard extension is built around a simple idea: make the garden part of everyday life, not just something you look at through a window.

A cedar-clad volume extends from the back of the house, with full-height glass along the garden side and a deep balcony that sits somewhere between a porch and an outdoor dining room. On a good evening, the doors stay open and the whole thing works as one space.

The materials are kept simple; dark cedar against the existing brick, steel where it's needed, concrete where the floor continues outside. The addition doesn't try to reinvent the house. It just adds one good room that makes the rest of it work better.