HOUSE M

toronto, CANADA

Completed 2022

House M is a 3-storey detached house in Toronto’s West end that underwent a full gut renovation. The original house had been renovated multiple times over the years, leaving a series of awkwardly subdivided spaces that had never been considered holistically. Studio VAARO was tasked with reconfiguring the layout as well as designing fully custom interiors for this single-family home. Our clients were a professional couple with two young children; based on their needs, we developed a spatial concept of ‘functional volumes,’ in which well-proportioned spaces are partitioned by blocks of storage and service functions. In line with the family’s personalities, colour and playful details abound.

The ground floor features a semi-open plan in which strategically placed and colourful volumes containing service functions — the coat closet, powder room, kitchen storage, and stairs — are used to physically separate the entry, kitchen, living, and dining rooms, while allowing for a generous flow and visual porosity between them. The result is four separate spaces that are distinct, yet connected through carefully curated sight-lines.

The spatial concept of functional volumes continues upwards to the second floor, where deep and colourful portals — cutting through the closets — mark the entries to the three bedrooms.

*All photos by Scott Norsworthy unless otherwise noted

Team: Aleris Rodgers, Francesco Valente-Gorjup, Shengjie Qiu