All Photos/outdoor/locations : back yard/fences, walls : stone/fences, walls : horizontal/patio, porch, deck : pavers

Outdoor Back Yard Stone Fences, Walls Horizontal Fences, Walls Pavers Patio, Porch, Deck Design Photos and Ideas

The back garden is a perfect metaphor for what the couple hoped to achieve with their project. "We feel a part of the city, but there’s still this sense of privacy," says Ali.

"You can see [with] this building how the design is in the small details and at the urban scale," says Cynthia.

Archier maintained the old brick from the existing part of the house to clearly illustrate the relationship of old with new.

"To accentuate [the] seamless connection to the outdoors, we created a pair of retractable glass walls that meet at the corner. The effect when open is one of completely dissolving the corner and creating a feeling of being surrounded by nature," describes Maniscalco.

"The creation of a 'functionally active' series of retaining walls with our colleagues at Surfacedesign activates the space for use with an outdoor fireplace, bar-b-que, and climbing wall," notes Maniscalco.