Paul Raff Studio
By David Sokol,Via:greensource.construction.com Any family move is nervous-making. New schools, new commuting patterns, new social circles. One brood’s haul from Arizona to Forest Hill, the well-heeled neighborhood just north of downtown Toronto, also prompted anxiety over a certain kind of climate change. “The clients were wary of losing all the beautiful light qualities of the Arizona desert,” says Toronto-based architect Paul Raff, whose eponymous studio was hired to construct a new home for the foursome…
Image © Ben Rahn/A Frame
Raff sited the 3,500-square-foot residence exactly to the cardinal points and slightly back from a gently sloping bend in a north–south street. “The alignment, which allows for smarter solar energy design, doesn’t create a distinguishable shift to the geometry of the street,” Raff says.Image © Ben Rahn/A Frame
Nor does the massing of the building—in which a small volume stacking a living room over a garage hooks to the south of the main rectilinear volume, which is topped by a third-floor, almost-square master suite—conflict with the Georgians and Victorians of Forest Hill. Image © Ben Rahn/A Frame
Its exterior is constructed of SIPs, while wood-stud partitions make up the interior partitions.Image © Ben Rahn/A Frame |
Image © Ben Rahn/A Frame
Automated shades and passive ventilation, plus Paul Raff Studio's decision to maintain the site's older deciduous trees, cool house and outdoor play areas during summer months.Image © Ben Rahn/A Frame
The design's aesthetic warmth complements the material palette. Tongue-and-groove bamboo flooring cover the second and third floors.Image © Ben Rahn/A Frame