Alex de Rijke, founding director of dRMM Architects in London, and his client for the Sliding House hadn’t seen each other since their days as schoolmates and teenage motorcycle enthusiasts. “I knew that Alex had become an architect,” says the homeowner, “and I Googled him and saw that his company was doing amazing work.” The client had an almost 4-acre plot of land in Suffolk, a mix of rolling hills and flat coastal landscape (Holland, and its horizontal geography, is just across the North Sea), and wanted a weekend getaway where he and his wife could grow their own food, entertain friends and family, and get away from London. What he got instead went from country retreat to full-time home and office (London is now the weekend stay), and from straightforward construction to an inspired, unconventional surprise—a 2,153-square-foot house that transforms from an enclosed volume to a fully glazed, greenhouse-like structure, all with the push of a button.

The “sleeve” takes six minutes to completely uncover the house, a process, says the owner, which is both smooth and quiet. The interior itself isn’t unconventional, per se, but it’s modern and practical, with low-maintenance surfaces like flagstone flooring and laminated cabinetry. The interior walls, painted red, echo the red- and black-stained larch on the exterior.