Modern Residential Design

Drew Mandel Design 83A Marlborough Ave Infill house on a 13ft wide plot, becomes feature residence of the street - Drew Mandel has used every inch of this brownfield (ex 1 car garage & garden) site to create his ideal residence. Influences of Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler eminent in the residence's façade lead to elegant use of wood detailing for the interior. Overview Drew, an up and coming Canadian architect snapped up an “interesting” plot, that his colleague at MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects , David Miller had on offer. Setting out to create his debut "big time" design, Drew won a number of awards in Toronto and Canada. The house is an impressive example of modern infill, coming in at a modest $182 per ft 2 . The Lot Miller and his architect wife, Amy Falkner, had obtained a minor variance allowing them to build to the very edges of the property line without the usual margin of grass or ground cover. (It's only because the houses on each si...

D'Arcy Jones Design INC Island House Canadian based architect D'Arcy Jones has created a wonderful summer retreat here. The house sits low and wide on the land hidden by fur trees and long grass from the water's edge. Horizontal slats and panelling on the house accentuate this width and and divide the immediate surroundings into private courtyards. These slats are laid flat to form benches and stair with floating treads throughout the garden. The rough concrete interior is warmed up by Douglas Fir and open fireplaces. The covered walkways, large overhands, and separated living and sleeping areas seem to be an inverted/extroverted version of a Japanese courtyard house. Certainly the finishings, pillar endings, rafters and chain link downpipes have that Japanese feel. Designed for an elderly couple and visiting young relatives there's a separate sleeping wing for guests to the left of the plan. The centre block contains the open plan living, dining and kitchen, wit...

Patkau Architects Shaw House Here's a quick reference to a northern hemisphere version of the Road to Farellones house. Similarly the pool is built into the second floor, but in this case, the entry is right underneath it. Windows in the bottom of the pool allow light to ripple across the doorway and entrance porch. The galvanised steel, concrete and light timber exterior combines, and no doubt will age, well. I really like this and the slat covered loft boxes, housing the tall bedroom and study/guest room. There's plenty of room for jumping on the bed, and the fact that they're tall makes up for these rooms being moderate in size. Downstairs, separate living dining and kitchen areas in sequence as you head back from the sunken lounge and views to the harbour (the kitchen is behind a sliding door, seen opened and closed in the shots). Finally, right at the back of the house, as all bachelor pads should, it's got space for the weekday car and the weekend race ca...