The starting point of the design was the placement of a single material insert - a black tray; a room laid into the garden cheek-by-jowl against the grain of the existing Victorian House. Conceptually, the walls and floor of the new black brick tray were then carved away to create connections between the inside of the house and the garden; expanding the garden in to the house and the kitchen into the garden. The design sought to rejuvenate this suburban, 4-bedroomed house – replacing its cellular arrangement of spaces with a new dynamic between inside and outdoor space suitable for a young family. The openings in the ‘tray’ and the careful demolition of existing walls were controlled to reveal powerful glimpses of the black brick from the inside and the delicate outline of the newly-formed openings in the Victorian house from the outside. The kitchen and dining spaces are further connected to the garden with a timber-clad island that forms part of the kitchen worktop extending to form an external dining table and garden bench. Over the bench sits an all-sliding, all-hinged door/ window with various permutations of 5m-wide openness. A practical, versatile and fluid transition space between inside and out – a new lease of life fit for a family.