06/01/2026
The conversation in Ottawa’s backyard design world has shifted this year. Homeowners who once asked for just a pool, or a deck, or a patio, are now asking for something larger. They are asking for a destination.
Designers are calling it the micro resort trend, and it is rewriting what an Ottawa backyard is for. The old model treated the yard as a single function. Pool people built pools. Cooking people built kitchens. Lounging people built decks. The new model treats the yard like a small, multi-zoned property. Dining area here, fire feature there, plunge pool, lounge, garden, lighting. The whole thing designed to be moved through, not just looked at.
What is driving it is a generation of homeowners who travel well and want their backyard to feel like the places they remember from a really good trip. The sound of water somewhere. Soft lighting that makes the evening last longer. Furniture you actually want to sit in. A path that goes somewhere, even if that somewhere is just a private corner with one chair and a view.
The shift is also practical. Ottawa summers are short. A backyard that earns its design is one that pulls you outside in May and keeps you out there into September. The micro resort approach front-loads the design work so the summer itself feels effortless.
Among the designers leading this in Ottawa is , whose recent work across the city is some of the strongest examples of the trend done with restraint rather than excess.
If your backyard has been one zone for too long, this may be the summer to ask what else it could be.
