tched into the minds of many who grew up in Australia are memories of summer days spent playing backyard cricket or sprawled on the cool green lawn, watching the clouds. Ours is a uniquely outdoor lifestyle, and our houses reflect this with spaces that unfold from open-plan living areas to outdoor decks, paving and lawn. But Australian houses weren’t always connected with their backyards in the way that they are now. In the early twentieth century, houses were often enclosed, inward looking and, in Queensland, elevated high above the ground and only connected to the lawn by narrow stairs. In the 1960s, the advent of the glass sliding door led to postwar. The appeal of this design approach has endured, and today the work of Brisbane studio Myers Ellyett Architecture and Interiors is impelled by design explorations that connect living spaces to the landscape.
