Ice houses were used by ice trades in the mid-late 1800s to store and distribute large blocks of ice harvested from nearby frozen lakes during the winter months. The widespread adoption of electrical refrigeration in the early 20th century eliminated their need, and thus many were left abandoned or destined to be repurposed for other uses.

Traditional ice houses typically averaged 2,500 square feet,  and were constructed out of masonry and/or heavy timber on the exterior, and insulated with either straw or sawdust on the interior. When tasked with converting a former ice house into a modern single-family private residence, the goal was to create a new architectural environment that honored the historically-significant industrial characteristics of the original building.

Located in the heart of Pape Village, the two-storey building served as a coach house/storage depot for the Lake Simcoe Ice Ltd. company that operated a “cash and carry” service during the late 1800s. Horse and carriages would circulate supplies through a barn door located axially with a driveway to Browning Avenue. The house has gone through numerous renovations over the years that attempted to mask what the building was; this iteration strips away the layers of the exquisite corpse down to its bones and attempts to draw from them a new architectural language.        

The house is organized so that the public area - entry foyer, office, kitchen, living room, family room - are located at grade while private quarters - bedrooms and bathrooms - are located on the upper floor.  One enters the house through the corner into an open plan that is bookended by storage and service rooms along the west wall and a feature wall to the east. The north wall is flanked by a linear kitchen and island that faces the common area to the south. The upper level is divided so that all bedrooms (three in total) face south for optimal daylighting while the bathrooms line the north wall. A mono-strung stair that foregrounds the feature wall unifies the two floors.

The feature stair is the project’s unique insignia and is a pastiche of various canonical examples of stair design.  Design inspirations include Alvar Aalto’s composition at Villa Mairea for its formal ingenuity and Jean Prouvé’s lacquered steel and oak “ladder” stair, which was utilized in the apartment units at Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, for its utilitarian clarity. The treads appear as though they levitate in the air - an illusion created by resting each one on a steel stringer that is color-matched to blend with the plaster wall behind it. This interplay between materials and textures is prevalent throughout.   

In select areas such as the master bedroom, the brick wall subtly peeks through and creates registration points throughout the building that continue to link the past to the present. A thinset polished concrete topping installed over the existing concrete slab visually counterbalances the texture and geometry provided by the wood in the ceiling. It is also a nod to the original material palette; a textured dark charcoal plaster on the feature wall acts as the ideal figure-ground to mediate between these two surfaces. Throughout the space, velvet curtains with a complementary color palette are used as privacy screens when drawn, but also provide a visual contrast to the hard-edged architecture that surrounds them. The visually minimal design of the millwork is predominantly of Russian birch and serves all of the essential functions required of domestic life, but also stylistically aligns with the simplicity of the rustic furnishings that stood in its place before. Each new design element works to reinforce and reinterpret the original.