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 designing a new layout as well as fully custom interiors for this single-family home.

The ground floor, containing the entry foyer, living, dining and kitchen spaces, is characterized by an ‘open yet closed’ spatial concept, where strategically placed volumes — containing the service spaces: the coat closet, powder room, kitchen island and stairs — are used to define the rooms while maintaining a generous amount of porosity and transparency. The result is four separate spaces that are visually connected yet distinct.

On the second floor, deep portals — cutting through the closets — define the entries to the three bedrooms. Throughout the house, colour is actively used as a device to emphasize the space-defining elements of the project.

*All photos by Scott Norsworthy unless noted

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