Clubhouse Vaughan residence, Modern Ontario home photos, New Canadian real estate architect

Clubhouse home in Vaughan ON

8 June 2025

Architecture: Frank Franco Architects

Location: Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

Photos by Scott Norsworthy

Clubhouse, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

Clubhouse is an award-winning modern custom home that exudes luxury and refinement. Overlooking the prestigious National Golf Club of Canada, this magnificent residence boasts a sprawling 12,000 square feet of interior space, cleverly designed to harmonize with its picturesque surroundings.

Completed in 2023, this masterclass in residential architecture is a testament to the builder’s exceptional craftsmanship and attention to detail. With its sleek lines, expansive windows, and sophisticated color palette, the Clubhouse is an oasis of tranquility and refinement, perfect for discerning individuals and families seeking a serene retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Design Intent
The residence is situated in an older, private community where most of the original homes are now being replaced with varying architectural styles. Grounded in the roots of modernism, FrankFranco’s Clubhouse is one of the only homes here with visible architectural intent. It is the first house you see when you enter the estate community, it will forever act as gatekeeper and beacon. It though, unlike the surrounding residences, optimizes its plot with a site-specific design that reinterprets opulence as quiet and liveable.

Architectural Features
Clubhouse is perched atop a hill in Vaughan, just outside of Toronto, overlooking the 18th hole of a nearby golf course. The residence is situated in an older, private community where most of the original homes are now being replaced with varying architectural styles. The home that had previously sat here was a faux and tired Tudor-style English manor, with a steep driveway. A suitable renovation for the client – a family of four – was just not feasible and so the manor was taken down and replaced with a modern build.

Grounded in the roots of modernism, FrankFranco’s Clubhouse is one of the only homes here with visible architectural intent. As it is the first house you see when you enter the estate community, it will forever act as gatekeeper and focal point. It though, unlike the surrounding residences, optimizes its plot with a site-specific design that reinterprets opulent spaces as quiet and livable. From design to final construction, this project was three years in the making; it was completed in March 2023.

The home is the result of FrankFranco’s thorough understanding of and creative response to the site’s conditions. Its T-shape design graphically anchors the massing of the structure and internally organizes the uses while the cantilevered rear portion appears to defy gravity. With few windows facing the street and impenetrable acoustic insulation, the home is ensconced. Running the length of the northern wall is a 130-foot-long privacy screen made of aluminum and finished with anodized bronze. The screen’s strong massing signals a significant wing of the home and, from a privacy standpoint, it controls all sightlines into the home from the main road. Looking out from the enclosed terrace, the screen filters sunlight and wind, allowing residents to sit outside to enjoy framed expansive views without sacrificing comfort.

While fortified in the front, the exact opposite is true at the rear. Here south-facing, structure-wrapping glass walls allow the home to open completely to the nature of the site, with views as far as the horizon will allow. Access to the outdoors is optimized – all over-sized interior spaces lead towards the open concept rear which features such amenities as a cabana, pool, deck, and large backyard.

Interior Features
The clients regularly host business events at home and entertain often. Clubhouse’s private frontage offers vehicle protection with an expansive garage and covered car port. Guests enter the house on the lower level, where it becomes quickly apparent that the internal navigation is unique. To reach the living spaces on the second floor, guests gradually make their way upwards. Designed as an art installation, the central staircase is the principal circulation of the home. The guard is made of cold rolled steel finished with rubbed oil. There are two landings incorporated in the stair composition – these pauses in the ascent give guests the opportunity to observe each step towards entering the living quarters. The oscillation between the height of the white oak handrail and the top of the guard geometrically combine to create sensual lines.

Upstairs, all spaces are aligned sequentially along the back of the home and feature such custom points of interest as a vertical garden wall, a monumental fireplace, and an interior sculpture garden. The professional-grade kitchen and elegant yet comfortable dining and lounge spaces cater to guest needs.

FrankFranco’s interior design is functional, warm and, taking its cue from the site, features natural elements. Because the house is modern, there are but a handful of primary finishes that carry throughout. At key points, locally sourced Eramosa limestone, featured in a vein cut, penetrates the glass, and extends from the home’s exterior cladding onto the interior walls. The continuity of the limestone from outside to inside offers a distinctly tactile experience, inviting guests to explore and touch the material as it abuts the more refined palette selections of woods and natural stones.

Large Taj Mahal quartzite slabs were used to compose various elements in the home, including the floors and stair treads of the main staircase, the 27-foot-long kitchen island and backsplash; it was also used to clad the feature fireplace in the living room. The switch between polished and honed quartzite faces creates a distinct yet harmonious palette as one navigates the home. Nearly all millwork and wall panels were produced utilizing a wire-brushed white oak.

Sustainability
The studio’s sustainable practices and processes include specifying locally whenever possible and utilizing new building infrastructures that are energy efficient. The building’s east-west orientation alone made it the perfect candidate for passive solar heating. All windows, including the wraparound curtain of glass with a massive split sliding door at the rear, are high-performance and tinted, limiting air-conditioning in the summer. Natural light bathes the interior even on an overcast day.

What makes the house truly efficient is invisible. Fuelling the home is electricity and cold weather heat pumps. Central to the distribution of heat is the hydronic system – all surplus heat is collected in the hydronic system and stored in buffer tanks as well as in the precast core slab. Mechanically, the home is segmented into 11 zones and utilizes integrated air handlers with heat recovery and shared exterior condensers. The sunlight that the south side enjoys is captured in both the hydronic and forced air systems and this heat is distributed to the other zones in the house when required. Heating and cooling scales with use and the clients can micro control the zones as they are occupied. In the summer months, heat is removed from the building and sent to the outdoor pool.

Clubhouse was designed from the onset to be a legacy project. This is a residence that will surpass
trends and provide a forever home for the client and those that will live here 100 years from now.
Modernist Clubhouse truly is a beacon for its neighbourhood.