Part 1 – Wu Cars Residence, California – Landscape Design (JPEG)

Part 1 – Wu Cars Residence, California – Landscape Design (Full Symbol Library)

Hill House by Johnston Marklee & Associates

Colborne Residence by Housebrand

Croft Street Loft by Levitt Goodman Architects

Flammia Residence by THERE Design

Holland Park by Boyarsky Murphy Architects

Snowden 1 House by Crawford Partnership

Twin Peaks by M.J Neal Architects

83a Marlborough Avenue by Drew Mandel Design

Part 1 – Cummings Bristol Residence, British Columbia (JPEG)
Part 1 – Cummings Bristol Residence, British Columbia (Full Symbol Library)

Cummings Bristol Residence – Demolition Plan (JPEG)

Ridgewood Residence by Assemblage+

Part 1 – Wong Griffin Residence, Texas (Full Symbol Library)

Completed Concept Design – Donnely Fitzgerald Residence (PDF)

Completed Concept Design – Stein Residence, Alberta (PDF)

Mantel Residence by Splyce Design

Adams Fleming House by Levitt Goodman Architects

Completed Concept Design – Swanson Residence, Calgary (PDF) | Completed Concept Design – Swanson Residence, Calgary (JPEG)

Originally constructed in 1838 during the Greek Revival period in New York City, this townhouse has undergone several transformations throughout its life. Built as a home for a merchant and his family, it became a rooming house in the early 20th century and was serving as a series of apartments when our clients purchased the building with the intention to return it to its original use as a single-family home. With the new design, we wanted to be mindful of this history of the house, to acknowledge that the building had led many different lives before its latest incarnation as the home for our clients. We wanted the restoration to be respectful of, but not beholden to the past; sensitive to the many elements that have endured through a century and a half, yet honest about how lifestyles have changed over time as well. By not privileging any particular moment in the history of the house, we created a balance between the new and the old that feels both comfortably familiar and refreshingly unique.

In returning the townhouse to a single-family home, we were able to re-establish a sense of the original layout of the house in the proportions of the rooms and their relationship to each other. The new plan reconfirms the division of rooms into primary rooms occupying two window bays with secondary service rooms occupying the single bay containing the stair. We were able to modernize the program of the house without having to inject modern conveniences like closets and full bathrooms into the plan haphazardly. Modern rooms like home offices and the master bathroom fit comfortably into the plan by occupying a primary position on each floor organized by a layout which echoes the rhythm of the bays established by the windows.

We returned the kitchen to its original location in the house on the garden level. In order to open up the relatively narrow space we removed a 17 foot long section of wall that separated the kitchen from the hallway by installing a steel beam in the ceiling. Classic materials such as Carrara marble and ivory ceramic tile were combined with sleek modern cabinetry and appliances.

The second floor was transformed into a master suite. Each room is programmed with an individual function. A new bathtub was placed at the center of the room in front of the existing fireplace and a custom walnut vanity, which stands as a freestanding piece of furniture, was designed to accommodate the two sinks. A large shower and toilet room are located at the center of the suite. Smaller ancillary rooms are used as dressing closets.

Though the building had been renovated somewhat haphazardly at times, much of the original detailing had survived in good condition; the wide-pine plank floors had been protected by layers of carpeting, the wooden shutters were creaky but clean, original plaster crowns were found behind closets and bathrooms, the fireplaces were uncovered by demolishing the boiler flue. We sought to integrate the materiality and aesthetic of the new with the existing. Our clients have an extensive and impressive collection of modern furniture and furnishings designed with clean lines and a frank use of materials which is well-suited to the simple shapes and thoughtful proportions of Greek Revival detailing and articulation.

MADE is an innovative architectural firm distinguished by our belief in integrating the designer and builder at every stage of the construction process. By combining a design studio, a fabrication workshop and a contracting team under one roof, we offer a range of services unmatched by a conventional architectural practice. More importantly, with the talents of informed designers and the skills of inspired builders, MADE creates architecture that is intelligently designed and ultimately refreshing in sensibility and aesthetic.

For more information on MADE LLC visit their website

Completed Concept Design – Chen Kirkpatrick Residence (PDF)

Amidst the booming real estate market in Toronto, finding a modern ‘house’ counterpart to the modern condos that are being built all over the city is a challenge. Reigo & Bauer’s development projects offer Toronto homebuyers Houses that are: new construction; contemporary design; and competitively priced. This small detached house in the beaches neighbourhood of Toronto is R&B’s first infill development.

The house consists of 6 primary rooms and features a subterranean terraced garden, main level floor to ceiling glass and custom designed interior detailing not typically found in a house at this price point.

Reigo & Bauer is a design and development firm located in downtown Toronto, offering the mass-market modern living in traditional residential neighborhoods. The firm’s primary focus is the design and construction of contemporary houses for sale through the Canadian MLS as well as offering full consulting services to clients considering both new construction and renovation. With more and more people appreciating contemporary design, we are hoping to provide houses that will reflect the lifestyles of those design-educated and aware homebuyers.

For more information on Reigo & Bauer, visit their website.

Millwork Images From Louis (PDF)

This project is essentially a work of “Furnitecture.” Bed + Shelves + Closets + Storage + Lamp + Dog Bed = Z Box, a free-standing cube built inside a large space.

The Z-Box solves two problems facing the owners of a newly renovated, yet wide-open loft: where are we going to sleep? (ZZZ…) and where are we going to put all this stuff? The solution comes through an act of amalgamation: several typically discreet and disconnected pieces of furniture coalesce into a large block of matter. Then the furniture within carefully subtracts the space neccessary to perform its work, creating a carved block of perforated steel, polycarbonate, and Douglas Fir.

The ambiguous situation with respect to the identity of the Z-Box (it is simultaneously one thing and several) is further enhanced by the lights within its walls, which, with the flick of a switch, transform the box from prismatic steel cube into glowing lantern.

Dan Hisel was recently named a 2005 winner in the Young Architects Forum, sponsored by the Architectural League of New York. Hisel’s Heavy/Light House project won a Progressive Architecture Award Citation and a Boston Society of Architects award for unbuilt architecture (both 2003). He also won a Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Traveling Fellowship in 1992.

For more information visit the Dan Hisel Design website.

Viewer Design Responce from Louis Pereira (PDF)

Rue Street, Austin by Hurt Partners Architects (PDF)

This is the completed concept design, including furniture, for this week’s Design Project.

Completed Concept Design – Gould Residence, Illinois (PDF)

For this project, we were asked to remove most of a fifties-era, two story home that no longer functioned due to a series of piece-meal add-ons and remodels.  We brought new life to the property by more fully utilizing the site, which is a large corner lot at the intersection of two streets at an acute angle. We were able to use the geometries of the two streets to organize the house in a way that better utilized the yard and created a family room couched between a two story sleeping wing and the public wing of kitchen, projects room, and garage.  In the family room, along the edge of the sleeping wing, we built a stone wall that extends to the stair volume to the front and to the outside deck to the back. The wall is the focus of the house and a good example of an attempt to solve a common problem of this era: to combine a hearth and an entertainment area into a living room wall that serves one seating area.

Hurt Partners Architects is an architectural design office that brings passion to the idea that architecture is about buildings that have a greater sum than their assembled components.

For more information visit the Hurt Partners Architects website.

Viewer Design Responce from Louis Pereira (PDF)

View the Mantel Residence Project Page

Completed Concept Design -Rice Residence (PDF)

Viewer Design Responce from Julie (PDF)

Viewer Design Responce from Mike (PDF)

Design strategies for the home, focused on the subtraction and manipulation of existing walls and ceilings. In the kitchen, one wall was removed to open up the space to the dining area, while another was shortened to allow natural light to spill into the adjacent, formerly isolated hallway. The new enlarged white on white kitchen, anchored by a teak storage cube, is reoriented for efficiency and interaction with adjacent spaces. In front of the sink and within the existing bay window space, an integral planter with tall grasses obscures views to/from the adjacent building. Sliding, translucent glass panels allow the user to further manipulate privacy and natural light levels.

The introduction of a high, frameless glass panel on the wall between the main entry and bathroom allows natural light to penetrate what was once a dark, isolated space while maintaining privacy. A similar strategy was utilized in the master bathroom, where a vertical slot of glass is inserted into the wall, bringing in natural light while providing a means for the eye to stretch across the adjoining master bedroom and to the distant mountains beyond.



The newly framed dropped ceiling further promotes the feeling of expansive, light and free flowing space, and plays an active role in defining the new home. Separated from the main ceiling and walls by deep, continuous reveals, the crisp, thin dropped ceiling plane appears to float in the space. The new lighting scheme was designed to eliminate the need for the extra depth required for conventional recessed lighting and consists of a grid of fixtures that are semi recessed within alcoves carved into the shallow ceiling plane.

Established in 2001, by Nigel Parish, splyce is an architectural design studio producing modern projects ranging in size, scope and budget from new homes, to residential and commercial renovations to custom furniture and landscapes.

For more information visit the Splyce Design website.

Viewer Design Responce from Louis Pereira (PDF)

View the Camden House project page

Completed Concept Design – Taylor Residence, Calgary (PDF)

The project replaced an existing dilapidated small lean-to rear extension (as can be seen in the images below) with a new glass extension at ground floor level and new timber and glass pod addition at 1½ height level, accessed off the existing stair’s half-landing.  The lower level accommodates a new kitchen/ dining area to relocate the tiny original kitchen that was set within the ground floor living room. The clients, an editor for a national newspaper and his wife who works in publishing, occupy the house with their two young daughters.  As the daughters are growing up and the couple often both work from home, they were severely in need of extra space.

The design achieves an open kitchen/ dining area at lower ground floor level that flows into the garden space. It also enlarges the opening in the rear wall of terrace to bring additional light through to what was the gloomy original kitchen area.  The level of the new rear extension is over 1m lower than the original level and the small rear garden was also excavated to match. By digging down, the walls of the small garden have been extended and their perceived additional height achieves a greater sense of enclosure to the garden space giving it a room-like quality. The sunken garden bordered by planting also achieves a reduction in outside noise levels within the space and creates a tranquil enclave within this busy part of the city close to Camden Town.

With the floor material followed through from kitchen to garden, the two spaces can be unified by sliding back the full width glass doors. The garden ‘room’ has been designed in collaboration with the renowned Garden Designer Paul Cooper (who has just appeared within the new Thames and Hudson Book ‘Avant Gardeners – 50 Visionaires of contemporary landscape’).  Part of Paul’s design is a lightbox feature to the rear of the garden that works in conjunction with other lighting to highlight the small palette of planting.

The first floor pod above is a flexible space that can be used as a home office, play room and guest bedroom. It has been clad using the timber veneer material Prodema Lignum, a material chosen over traditional timber cladding to give a sharper finish to the design. The material is also resistant to weathering and retains its colour, which was carefully chosen to complement the London Stock brickwork. The roof of the pod has a sedum covering which not only has an environmental benefit, but also a visual one as viewed from the top storey of the house.

Height was a limitation on the design to achieve the access off the terrace’s half landing with a kitchen below and also limit the height of the pod above to appease the planners concerns regarding loss of amenity to the neighbouring property. Because of this, the head heights in the pod and to the space below are tight. However, with the huge floor to ceiling glazed opening within the pod and the extensive glazing and one-and-a -half height space to one side of the kitchen/ dining area, both spaces feel open and light filled. For the project, we worked with the young engineering practice Malsihev Wilson who specialize in Glass structures.

Crawford Partnership, founded in 1997 by Alan Crawfordd, is a London based British architectural firm with an established and growing reputation. The practice is known for its innovative approach to the creation of space and creative use of light.

For more information, visit the Crawford Partnership website.