Liminal House is a project designed by McLeod Bovell Modern Houses. The clients came to us at a pivotal stage in their lives as soon-to-be empty nesters. The evolving needs of a family became the impetus for how we imagined a house that could embody the state of transition at a conceptual and experiential level. We chose the word liminal to encapsulate ideas that have informed the design process: namely the feeling of inhabiting a transitory place; orchestrating movement through space; and dwelling in the moments between from and to… Photography by Hufton + Crow.

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The project site straddles the interstice between a suburban residential neighbourhood and West Vancouver?s natural stony seashore. Positioned on an expanded border between land and sea, the building form references the creatures that occupy this interstitial territory, whose physiology has adapted to such challenging conditions. In the same spirit, the house establishes itself in concrete, stained Accoya wood, and aluminum plate?enduring materials that can resist the battering effect of a shore environment. Drawing from our experience negotiating complex topography and tight proximity with neighbours, we have learned to abandon the reading of the project as a series of flat ?elevations? which exists from an imaginary or inaccessible viewpoint. Instead, we embrace a scenographic approach where the house can be understood...