Brise Soleil - Revisited

Brise Soleil is an interior adaptation of a home originally designed by Carter Williamson in 2009, undertaken more than fifteen years later in response to the changing needs of its owners. The home had been well lived in. Its voids still carried light through the plan. Its robust exterior still held firm against the street. What had shifted was life itself. The owners did not want to leave. The question became how the house might change with them. The insertion of a lift within the internal courtyard quietly reshaped the plan. What began as an accessibility intervention prompted a broader reconsideration of circulation and use. The kitchen moved. Pathways widened. Thresholds softened. The ground floor became more generous, more fluid, more attuned to ease. Yet the defining qualities of the original design remain. Light continues to fall through the voids, animating walls and floors throughout the day. What has changed is tone. Where the interiors were once restrained, warm timber joinery and a richer palette now introduce tactility and depth. The contrast between robust exterior and intimate interior becomes more pronounced. The kitchen, long the social centre of the home, was redesigned to support accessibility without losing conviviality. Joinery was carefully resolved to ensure daily rituals continue seamlessly. Brise Soleil is not a reinvention. It is an evolution. A house that has matured alongside its occupants, proving that architecture designed with care can absorb change without losing its identity. Architecture that evolves with life.