Residential ArchitectureHousesSkygarden House / Dubbeldam Architecture + Design

Skygarden House / Dubbeldam Architecture + Design

Skygarden House

Architects: Dubbeldam Architecture + Design
Project: Skygarden House
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Photography: Shai Gil

Situated on a narrow lot in an older Toronto neighbourhood, the Skygarden House by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design provides outdoor living spaces on multiple levels to address the owners’ desire for a better connection to the home’s natural surroundings. The owners used to spend their weekends at a home in the country, located next to a stream and surrounded by trees. For their new urban home, they wanted to emulate this bucolic experience and satisfy their deep connection to nature.

Skygarden House 2

Although the new house is only 2,420 square feet, it feels much larger—its rooms expand beyond the interior of the house to a series of highly useable outdoor spaces that enrich the domestic experience, each with its own unique character and varying level of privacy. The rear yard is landscaped and features a generously scaled thermally treated ash wood deck, and a few steps down, another zone defined by granite pavers is planted with a row of honey locust trees that offer dappled light and shade in summer. The plant material was selected to provide visual interest year round.

Skygarden House 3

Even the existing porch at the front of the house is remade into a private outdoor dining room enclosed by a five-foot-high wood screen, extending the private realm into the public arena. On the third floor, two significant outdoor spaces provide green respite. An exposed roof deck at the back of the house has plentiful views over the neighbourhood and into the extensive green canopy surrounding the house.

Skygarden House 3

At the front of the house, half of the master bedroom is given over to an intimate exterior space clad in the warm ash, with a recessed planter and an opening carved into the roof for natural light, access to rainwater and ample views of green. Intimately connected to the master suite, this “skygarden” functions as a unique outdoor room, open to the sky, sun, wind and stars.

Skygarden House 5

Working with the existing footprint of a century-old fully detached house in the city’s midtown neighbourhood, only the two side exterior walls of the original building were retained. Referencing the traditional domestic scale and form of its neighbours, the Skygarden House presents a fresh and graphic interpretation of the traditional pitched roof with a sublimely clean elevation. Planes of floor-to-ceiling glass, comprised of a combination of windows, doors and spandrel panels, frame views to the exterior, bringing natural light and the experience of the changing seasons into the interior; they imbue each of the rooms in the house with a unique spatial quality; and they create ever-important access to outdoor spaces on both lower and upper levels.

Skygarden House 5

Skygarden House 6

Skygarden House 7

Skygarden House 8

Skygarden House 9

Skygarden House 10

Skygarden House 12

Skygarden House 14

Luxury Bungalow Interior Design by Designer’s Circle

Serenity is an enveloping sense of finely-tuned elegance reigning supremeness in this 5BHK apartment. A soft streamlined look that segues effortlessly from room to room, dining area to relaxed lounge space and beyond.

Graaf Jansdijk House by Govaert & Vanhoutte Architects

Graaf Jansdijk House is a single-family residence designed by Brugge-based Govaert & Vanhoutte Architects. Description by Govaert & Vanhoutte: In the 9th century, the Graafjansdijk (dike)...

Driftwood Sculptures by Vincent Richel

Inspired by nature, beauty and by the diversity of the surrounding, Vincent Richel has created driftwood sculptures, trying to mimic the nature. The artist collects...

Parker Residence by Medium Plenty

Project: Parker Residence Architecture: Medium Plenty Interior Design: Regan Baker Design Landscape: Terremoto Builder: Jetton Construction Styling: Yedda Morrison Location: San Francisco, California Completed 2022 Photo Credits: Laure Joliet The redesign of this...

The Promenade – Redevelopment of the East Side Paprocany Lake Shore

RS + Architekci studio have designed a modern and attractive recreation area at Lake Paprocany in Tychy, Poland. " The promenade " is a favorite...

Recommended Stories