The deep waters of the windswept Georgia Straight, which separates Vancouver Island from the jagged coast of Western Canada, are rich with marine aquatic life but quite cold for humans. On a neighboring property to a previous client’s Vacation Home, INTERSTICE Architects was asked to design a second guest house with a swimming pool, creating a composition of volumes to frame a protected inner landscape of majestic Douglas firs between the two structures. The one-story house extends horizontally to hover over the seaward dining deck with a view of the Rocky Mountains across the narrow straight. Organized along an exposed concrete spine to the northwest, which protects the building and pool from the prevailing north winds, the inner building opens into the interior landscape. Walls of folding and sliding glass permit the building to dissolve, merging interior space and programs with the garden, pool, and dramatic shoreline beyond.