Toronto-based Studio AC has offered a look inside their “unapologetically” residential scheme in the Canadian city. The three-story home reads as a series of stacked boxes from the outside with echoes of traditional residential forms.

At the base of the scheme, an otherwise contemporary rectilinear massing holds a gable-shaped opening while, above, the scheme is crowned by a gabled roof form. Inside, the emphasis on gabled forms continued with ceiling levels on the first and third floors that follow a peaked, sloping form.

“While a gabled roof is one of the quintessential icons of “house”, the Studio was interested in elevating this phenomenon beyond motif to a spatial experience that defined a narrative throughout the project,” the design team explains. “This approach was integral to working with the client's budget strategy and thesis: to create a project that is impactful without being indulgent.”

Externally, the home is clad in durable corrugated metal, with contemporary detailing on parapets in order to emphasize the illusion of stacked boxes. The combination of minimal external ornamentation alongside an emphasis on the interior’s peaked volume “allowed other details to become secondary and, in doing so, more cost-effective,” the team adds.

News of the scheme comes months after StudioAC also completed a coastal Canadian home embedded into a steep ridge. Back in 2021, meanwhile, the firm collaborated with Edition Cannabis on the design of a contemporary dispensary for Edition’s Toronto outlet.

You can read more about the biggest project completions and openings of 2023 by reviewing our end-of-year coverage here.