Woodland Ridge
Woodland Ridge
This Midcentury Modernist-inspired house atop a nature preserve near Toronto showcases the owner’s skills as architect, interior designer and cabinetmaker. While the Toronto Region Conservation Authority prohibits new builds here, the two-acre property included a 60-year-old cottage whose footprint was grandfathered, enabling construction of the new family home. The building is C-shaped in plan, its elevation asymmetrically balanced with a two-storey volume on the north leg and a one-storey volume on the south. The long horizontal roof planes and the massing of minimalist grey boxes punctuated by curtainwall windows framed in black metal evoke Midcentury Modernism as do the pilotis at the front and rear comprising back-to-back U-channel steel sections.
Brass inlays outline the stylized, origami-like tulip relief sculpture on the clear-sealed high-density cement fiberboard panels cladding the exterior. Inside, the abstracted-tulip motif recurs in walnut along the kitchen’s skylit wall segment and above the upper stairway landing.
