Craven Street Cottage is a minimal house situated in Toronto, Canada, designed by Anya Moryoussef Architect. Toronto’s “Tiny City” has witnessed the rejuvenation of a single-storey employee’s cottage, reworking a modest house right into a 720-square-foot haven for its proprietor, retired schoolteacher Laurel Hutchison. Initially constructed over a century in the past, the residence has been meticulously redesigned to reinforce its pure gentle and privateness, whereas preserving the construction’s historic character. Positioned on Craven Street, a avenue recognized for its small-scale properties, this undertaking aimed to take care of the unique footprint of the home for the aging-in-place technique of the consumer. The renovation confronted a singular problem when it was found that the highest course of the inspiration wanted reconstruction.
This led to an ingenious answer of briefly suspending the house’s above-ground shell to restore the inspiration, with out triggering the town’s “new construct” laws. The design course of concerned analyzing the present employee’s cottage typology to reimagine the house whereas adhering to the town’s renovation tips. This concerned flipping this system alongside the plan’s lengthy axis, reorienting the plan in direction of the intimate south-facing courtyard, and reinventing the roof’s conventional gable as a 36-foot lengthy sawtooth clerestory to maximise pure gentle and air flow. Further home windows had been strategically positioned to usher in gentle from varied instructions, whereas sustaining privateness from the skin.
These design decisions replicate the consumer’s want for a light-filled, tranquil house with a way of seclusion from her city environment. The house’s minimalist aesthetic is complemented by its north wall, which serves as a projection display screen for the ever-changing colours and shadows of the day and seasons, enhancing the dwelling areas. The house options an aging-in-place technique, together with a U-shaped kitchen for straightforward circulation, a curbless wetroom designed for accessibility, LED lighting, and sturdy finishes for low upkeep. It additionally incorporates sleeping house for a possible live-in caregiver and a entrance porch designed to accommodate a future ramp.
The price range was maximized by sourcing high-quality, salvaged fixtures and simply obtainable supplies, comparable to corrugated metal with a Galvalume end for the outside cladding and roofing, in addition to prefinished wood flooring. Sustainability was a key focus within the renovation, with efforts to reduce vitality consumption by means of using high-performance constructing supplies, high-efficiency gear, and energy-efficient fixtures. The house’s vitality efficiency benefited considerably from the strategic placement of the clerestory home windows, which offered passive photo voltaic achieve in the course of the winter months, masking practically 1 / 4 of the house’s house heating vitality necessities.
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