Thompson House by splyce design
Thompson House sets down on a steep site in West Vancouver, Canada, where harbour and mountain views pull in opposite directions. Designed by splyce design, the house navigates that tension with long cedar wing walls, covered decks, and a pinwheel roof that coax light and privacy into balance. It’s a house for gathering, but also for retreat, with circulation that choreographs movement and sightlines across levels.
Approach from the slope and the horizon splits: ocean forward, mountains behind. The house pulls you inward under cedar eaves, then lifts your gaze through a band of sky.
This is a house in West Vancouver by splyce design, set on a steep site and organized around movement, view, and privacy. The plan steers long perspectives to water and peaks while folding in pauses, crossovers, and quiet corners that temper an open, social layout.
Frame The View
Two cedar-clad wing walls extend well past the south facade to screen neighbors and train the eye to the harbour. Their reach creates deep, covered decks that act as outdoor rooms, drawing daily life outward in sun or rain without giving up privacy or focus.
Inside, sightlines slide between those baffles toward blue water, then pivot north to the mountains. It’s a controlled panorama, edited by structure so the landscape reads in clear, legible bands rather than a noisy sweep.
Cross The Bridges
Entry is a hinge point where volume rises and light pools under a wall-to-wall skylight. Heavy timber rafters cut a measured rhythm overhead, a tactile counterpoint to the pale interior surfaces below.
Two bridges span this tall zone, turning circulation into a daily encounter. Family members cross and catch a glance down to the living areas, a small ritual that ties floors together and makes movement part of the house’s social life.
Shelter The Decks
The roof works like a pinwheel, each elevation taking a different pitch to temper sun, rain, and view. Those shifts translate inside as varied ceiling heights, dropping low in bedrooms for calm and rising along the main route to widen the sense of passage.
Under the long overhangs, covered decks become extensions of the interior, not afterthoughts. You step out under shelter to eat, read, or linger with the harbour breeze, a year-round threshold that softens the line between rooms and landscape.
Toggle Public And Private
Open and porous does not preclude retreat. A compact office tucks behind the stair and, with a slide of a concealed panel, shifts from sequestered corner to part of the living area.
Upstairs, an enlarged stair landing lined with bookshelves becomes a one-person library with framed views to water and peaks. It’s a simple pause in the circulation that turns passing through into staying put—even for a few pages.
Light returns to the fore as afternoon falls, slipping through the skylight and along the rafters. Outside, the cedar wing walls hold the view steady while the decks collect the day’s last warmth, and the house settles into its measured cadence.
Photography courtesy of splyce design
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