Article source: StudioAC | Studio for Architecture & Collaboration
Located north of downtown Toronto, South Hill house near Casa Loma is a renovation, restoration, and addition to an older brick home. A sensitivity to the existing structure was observed when altering both the interior and exterior while the new addition stands in contrast with contemporary details, larger open spaces, and modernist massing.
While siting of the project was influenced by local zoning regulations, the new mass also yields to the existing house along the north elevation to celebrate the different periods of construction. While the new addition also utilizes a brick chosen to match that of the existing house and pay homage to the greater Toronto vernacular there is no mistaking what is new vs. old. Across the façade of the existing house as built openings were respected and referenced when conceiving interior layouts. On the addition expansive panoramic openings were used to bring in light and expand the perspective across the leafy tree filled neighbourhood.
A building is like a pile of books, which, being scaled and sized to our human body, is composed of horizontal platforms with consistent ceiling heights. A tall structure of three stories plus basement, Stack House is a playful expression of horizontal volumes, which are stacked on top of and cantilevered from each other.
The stack is composed of three “blocks”. The lower block, containing the public programs, is finished in stucco. The middle block, containing the transitional programs, such as the multi-purpose room on the mezzanine level, is finished in charred wood. The upper block, containing the most private programs, such as the master bedroom and ensuite, is finished in metal paneling. While using stucco, wood, and metal to symbolize the three blocks, the overall dark gray color achieves subtlety in their differentiation, creating a contradictory image of monumentality and intimacy.
As nature seeps through a crack of a stone, or as from a wound of one’s heart blooms a new, unforeseen joy and peace, a nameless empty room becomes a sanctuary, a small universe, where one’s soul can truly rest. Located near Scarborough Bluffs, the panoramic horizon of Lake Ontario, Out(side)In House offers a void that leads the inhabitants to see the inner horizon, suggesting life in its deeper meaning.
Minami Toronto is the latest project from Aburi Restaurants Canada, a restaurant group with multiple high-end casual locations famed for their ‘flame-seared’ Aburi style sushi. Minami Toronto introduces a drinks-focused venue that features Japanese-inspired cocktails, an expansive selection of sake, along with sophisticated sushi plates, bento boxes and bowls. The 4,600 s.f. interior includes a lounge bar and a main dining area.
VELA is the latest hospitality experience designed by award-winning design studio PARTISANS. As investment partners and lead designers, PARTISANS worked collaboratively with two experts in the culinary and beverage world and operating owners of VELA Robin Goodfellow, the part owner of PARTISANS-designed Bar Raval and Amanda Bradley, the co-founder and former General Manager of the highly acclaimed Alo restaurant. Located in an iconic heritage building in the heart of the city, VELA is a modern homage to the grand hotel lobby bar, presenting unparalleled service in a five-star designed space. Inspired by a constellation of stars, with the guest journey unfolding through VELA’s distinct spaces, including champagne bar, lounge, chef’s counter, and intimate booth seating, VELA will seat over 200 people, spanning 4,000 square feet with an additional 2,000 square-foot, year-round covered patio. The menu by executive chef Jeffrey Lapointe features both elegant classics and guilty-pleasures, to be paired with Goodfellow’s acclaimed whimsical cocktails.
Located in an upscale Toronto neighborhood, the Gallery House replaces a simple, neglected bungalow from the 1940s, and was designed for a couple with a passion for contemporary art and architecture.
The clients’ requirements for the house included a large, open kitchen and family room where they would spend most of their time, separate offices for him and for her, four bedrooms with walk-in closets and ensuites, a garage-accessible mudroom with generous storage space, a gym, a games room, a golf simulator, wine cellar and humidor, a pottery room, and a woodworking workshop. The owners, though not artists themselves, possessed a refined design sensibility, making fine craftsmanship throughout the residence an absolute necessity. Perhaps most importantly, the clients possessed an extensive international art collection that required ample gallery-style wall display space. The house would frequently oscillate between familial and public notions of space; the clients were frequent hosts of large social gatherings, and living spaces needed to be conducive to a comfortable atmosphere whether privately or socially occupied.
Ontario’s first mass timber commercial building in over a hundr ed years, 80 Atlantic pioneers a new urban office typology for potentially many mor e timber frame projects across the province. Designed by BDP Quadrangle for Hullmark, with partner BentallGr eenOak on behalf of Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, the new, 90,000-square-foot, five-storey building completes a courtyard with 60 Atlantic (also realised by BDP Quadrangle and Hullmark) to cr eate a paired commercial development. Hullmark requested that the building harmonize with the Liberty V illage neighbourhood, noted for its wealth of converted factories and warehouses, and that it would attract high calibr e, creative class tenants.
While designed for a specific client and a site with opportune zoning and planning, Hi-Lo Hybrid tackles a prevailing narrow lot condition along Toronto’s main streets. Despite the demand for increased density and housing options on these existing transit and mixed-use corridors, they remain largely underdeveloped, including an estimated 250km composed of existing single-family homes reinforced by low-rise residential zoning and planning. Outdated zoning and current planning policies limit the range of infill opportunities, driving homogenous stacked townhouse forms, as well as outsized mid-rise developments and retail spaces requiring long term lot assembly. Over time these development models become further entrenched. Hi-Lo Hybrid demonstrates a modest yet robust alternative.
The house, despite being so distinguished from its neighbors, blends into its surrounding so harmoniously. Its simple, rectangular façade with a long horizontal strip of windows on the second floor only mimics the gentle curve of the street in the front and remains crude and frugal in the rest of its details. Behind its unobtrusive and unimposing presence, however, it engages with the peculiar site and clients so energetically. Like a child who can play anywhere with anything, the Fun House discovers playfulness in the two and conceives a playground that belongs to both.
This condo, overlooking the Cathedral of St. James in the heart of downtown Toronto, was converted into an apartment building from a parking garage in the 80’s, and came to us completely in its original state: popcorn ceiling; an enclosed and very dated kitchen; mirrored walls; and worn-out carpeted floors. With a new owner, the entire unit was in need of an extensive update.
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