Tesseract House

ByMyProperty Life

A self-initiated, architect-led design-develop-build project, Tesseract house was not designed with a specific client in mind. Rather, it was conceived as a business case to prove that one can create great contemporary architecture that fulfills a demand in the marketplace, while demonstrating that unbridled creativity generates innovative and artful spaces, using conventional and readily available construction methods. All of this was accomplished without breaking the bank and with a typical budget for a house of this kind Located in Toronto’s western lakeside streetcar suburb, this single-family residence proves contextual while owing little to convention and serving as the antithesis to recent vernaculars. By simply and unconventionally engaging the immediate context this contemporary alternative has an impactful, yet unimposing outward presence. This geometry and the depth of experience from which the house derives its name is not provocatively innovative but nuanced, both simple and complex, revealing itself over time. All of this within the constraints of conventional local residential construction, the Tesseract House unapologetically desires to be more than just a place to live.

View of the rear of the house from the backyard. The envelope is composed of a grey washed white cedar and painted corrugated steel cladding. The form and material composition place greater emphasis on the public spaces with the living room on the ground floor (bottom left) and the study on the second floor (top right), while balancing three distinct points of entry. The execution of the ground mudroom (bottom left) provides a discrete practical service entrance, while defining a secondary rear entrance to a basement au pair suite below and prioritizes the connection between interior and exterior living spaces.
View of the front and side of the house from the neighboring lot. The overall form of the home is broken down with light penetrating
View from the street looking towards the front entrance

See more on Dwell.com: Tesseract House by PHAEDRUS Studio – Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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