Dizzying design at Villa Vertigo

Sunshine Coast property never built on, as it was deemed unbuildable

If you were ever to visit Curtis and Lynda Krahn at their home, Villa Vertigo, you’d do well to be prepared for a dizzy spell when you get there. Although the Krahns designed the home, even they have dizzy spells.

“It does give me vertigo and I love it,” Curtis admits.

“We go up and down the stairs all the time; it’s one way to appreciate the view.”

The three-storey, 2,500-squarefoot home boasts a wall of glass windows facing Pender Harbour on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast.

Guests enter from the street to the kids’ cave and playroom on the top floor, the living room and kitchen on the main floor, and bedrooms on the lowest level, with bunk beds on both the top and bottom levels.

Sundecks extend living spaces from the kitchen and dining room and are accessed by overhead glass garage doors.

An open riser metal staircase cuts through the middle of the house offering stunning views and … the dizzy spells.

Building materials include insulated concrete forms, maple stairs and fir beams milled up the Sunshine Coast. Sustainable features include a heat-recovery ventilation unit, a heat pump and operable skylights. Sail shades and huge overhangs provide some obstacles for birds.

Villa Vertigo took two years to design and build and was completed in 2019. We spoke with Curtis Krahn, principal with Synthesis Design, Vancouver B.C.

It seems you had many challenges from the beginning …

It was a difficult site. The property was never built on, because it was deemed unbuildable. It was a tiny lot, an hourglass shape, quite narrow in the middle on a very steep, sloped site. We had to get variances and special permission going through local design panels. We couldn’t get a conventional septic system in there, so we put in a personal sewage treatment plant.

How steep is the lot?

When the excavator was digging the hole for the foundation, he had to be tied off across the street, so the excavator wouldn’t tip into the ocean. He took every other day off, because he was so stressed working at the job.

Did the name Villa Vertigo come before or after you built it?

It really came throughout the process. When we were building, and the floor levels were built before the walls, nobody wanted to get close to the edge of that floor because you got a sense of vertigo. Even since, walking down the stairs, the central stair core, it’s kind of a floating stair and you get almost an uneasy feeling. It’s almost weightlessness.

You designed the home and you live in it?

It’s always much more challenging as a designer designing your own place. My wife Lynda is an interior designer. We did all this together. It was much more challenging designing for ourselves, but it was a ton of fun. We took chances. It really allowed us to experiment on a lot of things. Most things worked. Some things didn’t.

Is there anything you would do differently?

One thing that drives my wife Lynda nuts is those garage doors. If we’re opening up a door to barbecue, we’re opening up a12-foot door as opposed to a door we can just open and shut.

I love that the kids have their own special space.

When they were young and they were upstairs and we were two levels below, we wanted to make sure the doors were shut and there was a lot of security. We could be downstairs up late watching TV, or visiting with friends, and they could have a quiet space. Now it’s the opposite, we’re in bed early and they’re staying up late.