Riverdale Residence

You may think that a tight space constraint would be the last thing that an architectural firm would want for their next project. But with skyrocketing real estate in Toronto, ATA has been eagerly rethinking the constraints of small urban spaces and using these constraints as a launchpad for creative problem solving and innovative design for years.

For this Riverdale residence, the project began with a complete renovation of the first two floors, including stripping back the finishes, removing walls, and putting in new windows. Next came the addition of a third floor, which required careful consideration of tight urban restrictions. To get around these restrictions, panels were built offsite and then craned on top of the existing building. The decision was made to embrace the urban aesthetic by leaving out drywall and keeping the beams exposed. Design decisions for the renovation also reflect this rawness and grit, including an exposed plywood subfloor and raw surface materials on each floor, which define the character of the home. The residence, which contains modern floor-to-ceiling windows, has been featured in Houzz magazine for its unique modern design and creative architectural space solutions.