MERTON RESIDENCE

The design for this detached house focuses on two key elements – a towering backyard spruce tree and the maximization of natural light. From the street, a series of animated volumes encloses two floors linked vertically by an articulated “light tower.” The first level is fully open with no interior walls. Facing the back garden is a wall of glass and this, as well as the use of only glass panels to enclose the steel and maple scissor staircase ascending the tower, ensures the tree is always on view. 

Large and multiple windows on all sides supported by the light tower floods the house with natural light. A loft with a steel grid floor seems to float in the tower’s upper space, a half a storey up from the second level. The open grid allows light to penetrate down into a family room in the finished basement. 

The house’s exterior cladding counterpoints colour against light gray and black to articulate the volumes. Sandblasted steel panels provide a richly mottled orange veneer that contrasts with softer, gray-stained white cedar and black corrugated metal siding. 

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