#urban infill

Located in East York, Toronto, Periscope House is a renovation-addition project in which the existing one-story bungalow is renovated and a second floor is added on top. It was commissioned by a young professional couple with two children, to create a more personalized and sustainable setting for their lives. Coinciding with the pandemic, however, which has doubled or even tripled the material costs, it eventually went through a drastic revision, which resulted in removing half of the second floor and relocating children’s bedrooms to the ground floor. Yet, by utilizing the removed area as a void, the project has gained a series of double-height spaces on the ground floor, which has bestowed a distinctive exterior form that resembles... More

The project at 1074 Cardero Street focuses on creating sustainable urban densification in Vancouver. It aims to provide a template and vision for addressing the challenges of offering rental housing for the growing population in the limited urban area of Vancouver’s West End. This project puts forward a strategy for sustainable development and heritage revitalization of the city’s historic fabric while balancing the needs of the “missing middle” in urban housing. It offers an affordable, mid-density rental housing alternative by way of preservation and carefully considered augmentation of the site. The project aims to address the need for more housing by utilizing the unused space in the city while preserving the hi... More

Not long ago, there were gated dead ends (Sibe), surrounded by houses that accommodated relatives. Not long ago, there were enclosed courtyards, surrounded by rooms, housing a family. These Sibe (semi-public urban spaces) and courtyards (semi-private spaces) used to gift us the "sky" as soon as we stepped out of the house. Today, however, these families, households, or individuals live in different parts of the city, country, or even the world. Where? In apartments. Apartments, that upon stepping out of them, only reveal a closed space and a depressing environment. Apartments with low ceilings and an elevator. So where is the shared sky that belongs to us all... The mysterious blue umbrella... In the "Paakat" project, we presented the "sky"... More

This project explores the potential to create an urban oasis with the design of the home’s architecture and interiors. This residence is located in a densely-populated neighborhood and its design incorporates a series of indoor-outdoor spaces, connecting the home to its urban context while serving as a sanctuary for the owner and guests. With the design and construction of this project, modern architecture was achieved and introduced unobtrusively into this established community context. Kerri Fukui We were motivated to demonstrate that value can be found in great design at a small scale. The area’s residential real estate market has been increasingly driven by attributing value to scale, resulting in massive, underutilize... More

PS House densifies the inner block of an already dense San Francisco neighborhood (North Beach), while bringing an unexpected degree of spaciousness, natural light and connection with the outside to a small 1200sf urban house. It is a speculative project aimed at maximizing the potential of an existing dilapidated structure at the rear of the property, which was demolished but whose small footprint could not be expanded. The overall site’s void space is strategized in terms of natural light and ventilation, and includes three spaces: the courtyard separating the new house from the existing Edwardian building fronting on Powell Street; an exterior entrance passageway that connects this courtyard to the street; and an upper level south-... More

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. Borzu Talaie 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 stuc... More

IwamotoScott designed this new ground-up house in the Noe Valley neighborhood, as a speculative infill development for a builder in San Francisco whom we've worked together with on several projects. The site is located on a steep street, but has a fairly level topography within the lot, newly opened up by the demolition of a dilapidated small house at the rear of the property. Caption The subtly-angled facade design was created by adapting to  different setbacks of the neighboring houses, and as a  response to the downhill views to the east. Exterior materials include both stained clear cedar vertical boards alternating with blackened spacer boards, aluminum windows with clear cedar casing, and cast-in-place concrete site wo... More

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. Borzu Talaie   The house is broken indentedly at its center into two volumes, which are pulled apart and shuffled so that the breakages face the outside and the exterior walls face the central void. In this double-height atrium, natural light falls from the sky through a series of stepped clearstories, oriented to so... More

Niloofar 22 is a 10-unit infill apartment. In Tehran, we encounter a type of building resulted by domination of market economic behaviours and structural system over architectural form. The two dimensional order of infill typology along with the common constructed route, seeks easy and readymade answers and thus hindering more sophisticated and untested architectural forms. This project is an effort to counter this condition in Tehran.   The main concept to change this condition in this project was to divide the building mass to separate individual boxes and then redefine the building mass by setting these boxes alongside each other in a new order. The boxes have two missing opposite faces. By a 90-degree rotation along vertical axis... More

The Klotski is a three-story, mixed-use infill building situated in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. Close to downtown, the area is noted for its dynamic mix of commercial, manufacturing, and residential uses. Reflecting the eclectic vibrancy and gritty nature of the neighborhood, the 10,041-square-foot CMU and steel-framed building houses a beer hall, an office, a maker space, a studio, and a small caretaker’s apartment. Kevin Scott Riffing on the idea of shifting uses and planes, the design takes its visual cue from a sliding tile puzzle, also known as a klotski, where the object is to rearrange tiles to solve the puzzle. The puzzle is expressed on the south-facing exterior of the building through the use of 7’x10&rs... More