Residential
Single Family Home – Garden Ave.
Toronto, ON
Nestled in an older neighbourhood of Roncesvalles, this house began as a renovation to a small single story home built in the 1950’s. The new construction made use of as much of the original house as possible; every brick and joist that could be preserved and focused on adding to the solid base thereby minimizing waste and trips to the land fill. VOCs were eliminated by using zero VOC paints, adhesives, and using natural wood instead of plywood wherever possible (all floors are 2” x 6” planks). The home is heated through a geothermal system which also supplements the natural ventilation with cooling; and provision was made for solar panels and a green roof covering the third floor roof. Wherever materials were not required; they were not used. Floor joists were left exposed to eliminate excessive gypsum wall board, plaster and paint; the 2” x 6” structural flooring was maintained as the finish floor (eliminating the need for additional hardwood flooring).
As a kind of tower; this home’s hierarchy of space is arranged as a spatial transformation moving vertically from ground floor to roof and it experiments with open space to both unify and separate areas. The ground floor is shared by living, dining, and kitchen, which connect visually and have an implied separation due to the central atrium. This allows natural light to flow freely between all spaces and maintain a large open feeling that is subdivided into smaller spaces by cues like the ceiling planes. The sculptural stair unifies the ground floor with the upper floors and the atrium connects the lower level to the upper levels visually. On the second level the atrium literally separates the two rooms from each other which are open to below and each other; maintaining a connection and separation to the rest of the house. This level allows natural light and air to move from front of house through to rear and is slightly more compartmentalized than the ground floor though still open. The third floor contains two more bedrooms that are further separated by an outdoor court/balcony which connects the two rooms visually with windows and connects to the lower levels via an operable skylight. From this deck a spiral stair leads to the green roof above and completes the journey at the top of the house overlooking the city and exposed to the open air.
All rooms from ground floor to the roof are connected through visual access and natural ventilation throughout the house. The house is open, airy, and relies on the flexibility of sliding doors/walls to close spaces for privacy. The house is designed to allow free movement of natural light and ventilation throughout functioning like an organism that can breathe allowing air to move freely through it, across floors and upwards to the ceilings and roof.
Off Grid Cottage – Kawartha Highlands
Trent Lakes, Ontario
Drive off the main road, surrounded by crown land and deeper into the forest you enter a granite peninsula containing 2 acres of forest and surrounded on all sides by water; effectively dividing the lake into a smaller deep lake and a larger shallow lake. The built solution called for a small cottage that enjoys water, rock, forest, sky, sun and rain. Nestled in the forest and perched overlooking the granite slope into the lake; this cottage provides a different view and experience to be enjoyed from all sides with a cozy centralized space that provides visual enjoyment of the secluded surroundings. The cottage is built on a heated slab on grade providing all the comforts of home with 2 bedrooms on the main floor at one end and the open kitchen on the other end. Additionally 2 loft spaces look down from the high ceiling above for additional space and a sense of grandeur and airiness. The plan is centralized around family activity in the main space and open to the kitchen.
The property is completely off-grid making use of solar panels for electricity and propane for heat. The spine of the building lines up with the length of the peninsula and large dormers are placed on the roof oriented to solar south to maximize solar gain. This gives the panels exposure to the best angle of the sun; free from the surrounding trees. Additionally these dormers allow natural light into the lofted spaces and create an eccentric volume in the roof which translates into some interesting visual effects of space and light.
Single Family Home – Glen Davis Dr.
Toronto, ON
Open concept and modern are not a new concept and exist all around us. A modern home designed with the specific needs of the Client in mind – their use and lifestyle – is a truly modern house as it is designed around the life of the family dwelling within. This new home takes advantage of a unique and challenging property in Toronto’s east end and was conceived through consultation with the Client. Steel, wood, and polished concrete masonry wrap the crisp lines of intersecting spaces to form a special dwelling for living, entertaining, and extended family.
Polished concrete floors heat the house and provide a monolithic surface that extends throughout the interior spaces. A large feature stair rises through the central entrance space recalling the grand spaces of Baroque Halls in a completely modern vocabulary. The dining room is the first space to welcome visitors with a view to the large back yard garden and is framed against the backdrop of a full wall of open kitchen space and bar. The living room is further towards the back and between the living space and dining space an outdoor courtyard is framed against the curtain of trees and plantings of the back yard. The home has a very pronounced appearance to the street front and encloses this court in the back for secluded enjoyment of the home. This space then further spills out into the larger scale of the backyard opening up into the more flowing order of nature that surrounds this modern intervention.
Single Family Home – Fern Ave.
Toronto, ON
This home was an infill project, just east of High Park and was originally intended an investment property in which the owner could live in and rent out 2 additional apartments. The building was originally conceived as a tri-plex and was built to its maximum gross floor area. A critical feature of the design was to allow the client to take advantage of as much space as possible and maintain the appearance of a single family home whose character is in keeping with the context of the neighbourhood.
The interior was planned as three separate apartments, and the exterior was designed to appear as a single family home and to match the context; the vocabulary of the neighbouring Victorian homes. The family moved in and used the home as a single family home but with the spatial arrangements that can easily transform into a triplex or duplex; whichever suits the family. This leaves them with a home that can easily be subdivided to allow privacy for the children and grandparents, as the family grows.
Cottage – Lion’s Head
Lion’s Head, ON
by Stan Zalewski
This cottage is meant to showcase that a home need not be expensive or monumental to be architecture. The cottage is set high above Georgian Bay on the cliffs of Lion’s Head. It is an intimate space overlooking Georgian Bay with a roomy living space connecting to all the adjacent spaces. Entry is through a low unassuming entrance that is below the main floor level. The compressed space opens up to the sloping 2 story volume of space that welcomes inhabitants into the heart of the home.
