Scarborough Renovation

With frontage on one of the city’s most beautiful ravines, densely treed and private, a very modest 1950 home was looking to take on a new life. We were asked to reinterpret the Modern spirit of the house and take better advantage of what had to be one of the most pastoral locations in Toronto.

By peeling off the roof and blowing out the garden front, we were able to top up the house with a new Master Bedroom floor, extend a new kitchen to the south, and to add floor-to-ceiling windows at each level to behold the valley panorama. Open decks at the 2nd floor and off the kitchen are made private through the use of translucent polycarbonate paneling, and the building cladding is a traditional Fifties vertical wood siding. Installing heavier insulation around the building envelope, providing natural cooling via windows and skylights, and the deliberate emphasis placed on natural lighting are the means we put in place to completely transform the energy footprint of the home. And to their credit, the Owners worked tirelessly to perfect the early modern details of the building, ranging from the sourcing of period lights to installing the scrollwork-style address number fronting the street.