Designed for a family of four, the two-storey residence sits at the edge of Cedarvale Park in Toronto. Designed by Drew Mandel Architects, he used locally quarried stone blocks in three different sizes to create irregular courses on the building’s exterior. To contrast, zinc clads the cantilevered first floor and richly colored walnut covers a selection of surfaces inside the house. The volume of the house is broken down into modules, which step back and forth on both floors to create two patios at ground floor level and a vegetable garden on the roof. The building mass is formed by pushing and pulling the desired volume across the site. This volume has been pushed down to one story in order to permit light to the interior and views out to the ravine. Large expanses of glass dematerialize the monolithic stone building and dissolve boundaries between the interior and exterior.
