Located in Toronto’s Little Italy neighbourhood, House Grace is a full renovation and addition to a house from the 1980s creating a connected and light-filled home for a young family.  

The house was reconfigured bilaterally and vertically.  To take advantage of the partial side setback often found in Toronto houses, the ground floor entry was flipped allowing for the main ground floor spaces to be arranged within a clear volume that ran from the front to the rear of the house.  Three distinct service pods organize and anchor the kitchen, dining and living areas while buffering the entry hall.  A family room was located at the third level to take advantage of the treetop relationship and a sweeping view of Toronto’s downtown core from a roof terrace. 

Two offset double height openings straddle the second-floor breakout area bringing light and active connection between the three levels of the home.  Colour changes in light are registered in this space as the sun moves through the course of the day.  Strategic layering of materials, opacities, voids and volumes imbue a lightness throughout and plays with exposure and privacy between rooms. Geometric manipulations at the junction of existing site conditions adds a playfulness to the rigour of new elements. 

Material Used :
1. Equitone – Fibre Cement Façade Cladding - Tectiva
2. Neue Floors – Engineered wood flooring – Rustic Neue Collection
3. ANDlight – Lighting Pendant – Slab Series
4. Kolbe – Windows – Ultra Series
5. * Millwork: Design by uoai, Fabrication by Eurostyle 50 & Son of a Woodcutter