Studio VAARO

HOUSE A

toronto, CANADA

Under Construction / Completion spring 2024

House A is a 2-story new build located on a prominent corner lot in Toronto’s Humewood neighbourhood. Studio VAARO was approached to redesign an initial scheme for the house that had already been reviewed and approved by the city, presenting us with the challenge of working within an existing zoning envelope. This delicate task was achieved by carefully editing, re-calibrating, and re-conceptualizing the inherited building massing into a simpler and materially consistent expression - one that still references the typical gabled roof typology seen its immediate context while embracing a more contemporary aesthetic.

The exterior is entirely clad in handmade Belgian bricks, which are slightly irregular in shape and vary in color from clay red to dark purple. Special consideration was given to the brick coursing and jointing. We worked closely with the brick masons to develop, with the help of several 1:1 mock-ups, the right mortar colour, joint size and brick patterning. The final result is a deeply recessed mortar joint and a dark red mortar to match the brick colour. This combination allows the bricks to read distinctly and individually on close view, while also to merge into a more uniform mass when viewed from afar.

Team: Aleris Rodgers, Francesco Valente-Gorjup, Shengjie Qiu, Liam Hall, Alexander Lamarche