We are architects, interior designers, and building scientists creating sustainable, contextually-sensitive and socially-minded architecture. Since 1989, our Toronto-based studio has designed spaces that reflect the highest ideals and aspirations of our clients and contributed to the healthy growth and vibrancy of the neighbourhoods in which we work.
Our research-based process supports an engaged relationship with our clients and their needs, informing the design of our work. We tell the unique story of a place and its people, through the careful shaping of space, and the resourceful detailing of materials.
We design human-centric projects whose conditions or challenges can only be unlocked by the creativity of an architect. Regardless of the scale or typology, we seek opportunities to use architecture to improve social and environmental well-being.
We’ve built a reputation in Toronto for our innovative missing middle and gentle density, multi-family housing. For example, we built the City of Toronto’s first five-unit condominium on a single-family lot, and developed ReHousing.ca a project in collaboration with University of Toronto to help “citizen developers” transform single-family residences into multiplexes.
There’s an added challenge and benefit to reimagining an existing building or site. The benefit is not only the embodied carbon, but also the embodied memories and impact that these buildings hold. Our significant portfolio of adaptive re-use projects showcases how we are contributing to a civic renaissance through one modest but architecturally significant building renewal at a time.
Our approach sustainability draws on both the immediate human experience and the big picture. We are addressing climate change by leaning towards sensible passive systems over active ones, and also measuring carbon, energy and material reduction. We are leading the way: Our portfolio includes Ontario’s first institutional CLT building and its first non-institutional Gold LEED building.
Unless a building has serious structural issues, tearing it down rarely makes sense. It is environmentally and financially prohibitive, difficult, and time-consuming. Since buildings are generally designed for a 100-years of durability, retrofits, including envelope renewals, are the perfect way to not only ensure energy savings and user comfort, but to attract and retain its desired presence in the community or city.
We aspire to design spaces where everyone—regardless of age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, culture, customs, or other unique qualities—can live comfortably and without barriers. This commitment is particularly evident in our civic projects, like libraries and schools. Inclusive design starts with meaningful conversations with users to understand their needs, working together to uncover solutions that can often be unexpectedly transformative.
