The Teston House has been owned and occupied for decades by a well-known family in the Toronto area. When FrankFranco was engaged, it had reached the stage where it must transform to suit the needs of multiple generations; to become functional enough to accommodate the next era.
The common Pompeii villa inspired the home’s open-air internal courtyard, complete with a skylight. Here the head of the household once grew fig trees, and historically the home was used to entertain often. There was still a desire for it to remain hospitable, but the home needed to be updated from the usability standpoint. FrankFranco considered its uniqueness and vowed to maintain and build upon some of its original elements. As a driver for design, the firm looked at the flowing landscape of its parcel of land and decided to interact with the site by using sculptural curves to form the building.
This project is a great success story on how to transition a building from an artifact with an embedded use to another while building upon history and legacy in the community.
The bedroom wing is serviced by a catwalk flanked by the entrance on one side and the courtyard at the other. Here one can descend a staircase buttressed by the same courtyard and the lower living room. From this vantage point one may access the rear yard and the oculus-shaped pool. The driveway wraps around the rear of the home towards a ramp that connects to the new garage.
It is always challenging to interact with an existing building and design a complementary solution. FrankFranco not only maintained the courtyard but took it further, returning it back to the grounds. Now the main spaces of the home interact with this exterior courtyard and the four seasons can be observed changing daily from nearly every room in the house.
