We’ve always loved our backyards in Australia, but the garden is increasingly becoming an extension of the home, with clever design blurring the line between indoor and outdoor living.

From creating livable alfresco spaces that feel like real rooms to using exterior materials on the inside, this trend may have started as a quirky idea but it is rapidly gaining pace.

Jason Saunders, director of building designers Arc-Seven.1, won the 2011 Building Designers Australia WA Alterations & Additions $200,000-plus category for an outdoor room he designed in Applecross, Perth.

As well as creating a connection with nature and making the most of the outdoor space, “the owners wanted to introduce some colour to the house, which was a bland eight-year-old double-brick and tile construction,” says Saunders.

“It was a restricted site, so we needed to find something that allowed us to create the form that we wanted, without the time frames and other issues associated with using brick.”

The team opted for Matrix™ cladding, with its high quality panel finish that can be used both internally and externally.

“The whole design is based on squares, and Matrix [cladding] allowed that square form to be accentuated in an easy way. If we had had to use brick to do this, it would have been much more complicated.”

The horizontal linework also draws the eye out further and increases the scaling of the design, Saunders says, while adding to the casual ambience of the informal entertaining and living space.

“We wanted to design something that would create character without making it too difficult, and Matrix [cladding] was key to that.”

This article is part of a longer feature first published in Light Home magazine, Autumn 2012. To read the full story, and much more on lightweight construction and sustainable architecture and living, go to Light Home magazine Autumn 2012.