Reflection House is a rare midcentury relic on Vancouver’s Westside, a timber structure shaped like a houseboat with the site and sensibility of a treehouse. Built in 1956, it was preserved by its longtime owners, the award-winning architect Alan Davies and his wife, a sculptor and print-maker who exhibits internationally, but it was also used as a creative retreat. A master of residential architecture and heritage restorations, Davies naturally modernised the Vancouver property to bridge the decades. The couple leaves behind steel-framed glass doors, open stairwells with vertical cedar siding, creative storage and a new eat-in kitchen perched in the treetops.

Throughout Davies’ three decades at Vancouver practice Acton Ostry, the skyline view went through several incarnations as well. But the small, green garden and modern reflecting pool, accessed through French doors from a lower-level studio, anchor the home in its close community. Buyers will get an urban sanctuary with three bedrooms and three bathrooms plus a creative studio, easily accessible from forested parkland and beach. It’s currently listed with West Coast Modern for $3.17m CAD.

Read next: In Vancouver, an award-winning modernist gem is selling for $4m

This three-home Altadena Craftsman compound can be adapted for work, play or family