This project is a 350 sf two-storey addition to a 1907 brick house in Toronto’s Annex. Originally built by the owner of a lumber yard, and lived in by his family until the 1970s, the interior was exceptionally well-crafted, but typical of these houses, the connection to the garden was poor, the central living room dark, and in this case, the entry to the basement apartment right in the middle of the rear façade. The owners desired a new, light space that would replace an aging sunroom at the ground floor, and wanted more of the same on the second floor. As well, due to the location of the apartment access, the kitchen and sunroom were only connected through the living room, making for an awkward traffic pattern. Our solution was to create a tall sunroom space repeated on two floors with bridges over the stair (interior at the ground, exterior at the second) that wraps over the existing kitchen addition to integrate the existing kitchen brick form, and exterior entry to the basement. The exterior, clad in cedar toward the garden, black brick toward the neighbour, and trimmed with copper, presents a thick enveloping frame that runs the height of the addition, across the width of the building and returns down to the top of the kitchen, literally bookending the building. At the interior, this frame is rendered as a Douglas fir bookshelf and display unit that repeats at each floor including the second floor deck, and accommodates an excellent collection of sculpture, small art objects, and books.

View to the Deck from the Sunroom