Coach House, Toronto Residence, Ontario Home, Canadian Architecture Development, Images

Coach House in Toronto

Contemporary Home in Ontario, Canada – design by POST Architecture

7 Dec 2016

Coach House, Toronto

Design: POST Architecture

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Coach House

The Coach House is named for the history of its site – built where an original, century-old coach house once stood, housing horse and carriage. As such, the outbuilding sits in the rear yard of another house, highly visible to all the neighbours, making privacy a main goal for the homeowners.

The design solution was to invert the typical house layout into a C-shaped plan, so that all rooms face inward to a central courtyard, instead of out toward the street and rear yard. This strategy not only provided the needed privacy along the house’s perimeter, but also the opportunity to bring in natural light as it left the centre of the house open to a south-facing courtyard.

The lot was tight however, and with less than 1 foot setback from three of its four property lines, it challenged the interpretation of the fire safety code, which prohibits windows on those sides. The concern was that windows would not contain a fire, should there be one, and operable doors would further facilitate its spread onto adjacent properties, so a commercial sprinkler system was proposed, on both interior and exterior sides of the doors. This satisfied the Building Department’s concerns that despite the large areas of glass and sliding doors, a fire would still be contained on the premises.

The ground floor of the house contains a sizable entry (complete with storage space), a living room, a kitchen, dining and family room, as well as a guest bedroom with a private bath. The partial second floor holds the master bedroom, with ensuite bath, and a second bedroom and bath. The lower level has a large workshop space for woodworking, an infrared sauna, yoga room, and a large media room.

The material selection for the exterior consists of a combination of Hardie Board lap siding and flat panels, in custom colours. They distinguish the house in the neighbourhood as its own entity. Ridley windows with black aluminum clad exteriors and black painted frames and sashes at the interior, bring the house to contemporary era, and the warm walnut flooring, millwork and white lacquered kitchen ensure its homeyness.

Interiors: E. Jae Hamilton