Behold This Century-Old Edwardian Townhouse Reno In Toronto

Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighborhood is home to art galleries, Polish eateries, a farmer’s market, and verdant parks. It’s also where photographer Andrew Rowat, whose award-winning work has appeared in Bon Appetit and Vanity Fair, now resides. After stints working in Shanghai and New York, the global denizen returned to the city with his wife and newborn son looking to purchase a home in 2019. “It was a year of firsts,” recalls Rowat, who settled on a quaint, century-old Edwardian townhouse in the hip enclave.

Rowat had no intention of making major changes to the two-story home, other than a simple appliance upgrade in the kitchen. The layout proved challenging, however, so Rowat sought help from his former officemate and longtime friend, architect Delnaz Yekrangian. “Like most Toronto semi-detached homes on relatively deep lots, daylight had to be ‘dragged’ inside,” recalls the architect, who suggested opening the main floor for maximum sight lines and adding skylights, among other features. “In the software business, it’s called ‘scope creep’,” laughs Rowat, who tapped another colleague, Hong Kong-based designer Daniel Fintzi, to collaborate for the grueling facelift. “Fortunately, all three of us are very detailed-oriented,” notes Rowat. “As a photographer adept in leveraging natural light, he was the perfect client,” concurs Yekrangian.

The trio worked asynchronously, aiming to marry form and function wherever possible while maintaining the home’s 2,000-square-foot envelope and historic character. Old Canadian houses lack closet space, Rowat explained, hence a slew of built-ins: cubbies, drawers, benches and nooks for optimal storage, and uprights meant to mimic two-by-four beams delineating the entryway. A wall-hung toilet allows for additional counterspace in the powder room. Upstairs, Fintzi designed a spacious full bath with heated large-format porcelain tile flooring and marble countertops, specifically cut so the veins flow continuously from backsplash to counter to overhang.

In the formerly cramped kitchen, expansive Corian countertops host a bevy of custom features like an integrated knife strip, induction mobile charging, and discrete cutting boards. A tabletop extends from a lower drawer that can be folded away after use, and an 8-foot louvered ceiling diffuses atmospheric light while concealing the Bluestar range’s exhaust pipe. “The ceiling is often an overlooked canvas for creativity and function,” concurs Rowat.

Fond of Japanese and Scandinavian design principles, the homeowner embraced a wabi-sabi approach through a reductive palette of white-painted walls and pale millwork with Canadian maple flooring, complementing the dwelling’s original brickwork. Rowat debated repointing the latter but ended up keeping it as-is. “Cracks and missing mortar all tell a story of sorts,” he muses. “I enjoy looking at my photographs hanging from this brick that was made more than a century ago.” A large-format print of Kazakhstan’s former Hotel Aral adorns the coat closet, another, of Gaudí’s Basilica of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, adds drama to the dining area.

Rowat’s 20-year career is evident elsewhere, with furnishings and fixtures curated by fellow artists and industry connections. He discovered Vancouver-based lighting studio Bocci after an assignment shooting the co-founder Omer Arbel for T Magazine. Arbel’s pearlescent ovoid chandelier and globular table lamp adorn the dining room, opaque red and yellow orbs appear near the entryway. “Almost every piece or decision in the house comes from some sort of a personal connection,” reflects Rowat.

In total, the renovation took eight months, give or take a few straggling pieces. Rowat, for his part, is pleased. “I have often thought of the home as a palimpsest, where each subsequent owner adds a layer of their own to the underlying manuscript,” opines the photographer.

Peruse Andrew Rowat’s Toronto Transformation

A Historic Brooklyn Brownstone Receives a Modern Update

Young couple Lauren and Will—in their mid-30s—have been living in New York City for almost a decade. A few months ago, following the birth of their first child, they decided to move from their apartment in search of more space. It took them eight months to find this 1901 brownstone in South Slope, Brooklyn. They immediately fell in love with the original features, including the stained-glass windows, but they also needed to make some changes. They decided to start a renovation with the help of Appel Architecture, who recommended Crystal Sinclair Designs for the interior spaces.

With her team, Sinclair answered her client’s wishes to move away from a neutral look in favor of something a bit bolder. She created depth through the use of inviting and audacious colors throughout. For example, the dark entrance leads to the living room, which is much brighter and offers an invitation to slow down next to the fireplace, surrounded by curved furnishings. The kitchen features blue and green tones while the bathroom is adorned with a blue and lilac marble. Velvet and tile accents add texture, contributing to the cozy and sensual atmosphere, which feels like a warm hug.

The narrow footprint of the townhouse—similar to most brownstones—pushed Sinclair to be more creative in finding the best ways to optimize every inch, such as the metal/glass partition wall that smartly divides and connects the primary bedroom and the bathroom at the same time.

In the main living space, the vintage floor lamp was the starting point to source the rest of the midcentury-inspired pieces. Several artworks complement the fresh interiors characterized by an organic and modern design, which perfectly corresponds to the inhabitants.

“We strove to create a family-friendly space that begs you to come in and sit a while,” says Sinclair. “You feel at home right away as you enter.”

Bates Masi + Architects and David Kleinberg Design Associates Create a Contemporary East Hampton Estate

2022 Best of Year Winner for Beach House

Well before the East End of Long Island, New York, became known for shingle-style mega mansions, its residential vernacular was the saltbox, a simple two-story volume with a gable roof that comes closer to the ground in the back than in the front. Bates Masi + Architects decided it was the right form to give a new 11,450-square-foot weekend house for a couple and their family on a large plot of land in East Hampton. The clients asked for three semi-attached buildings, one for themselves and one each for their grown children (and their future progeny). Firm principal and Interior Design Hall of Fame member Paul Masi gravitated to the saltbox shape, so that the structures would feel protected from the elements in the back but wide open in the front, where the higher rooflines accommodate two stories of windows, all offering spectacular Atlantic Ocean views.

Masi’s other big move was to arrange the three pavilions in an L-shape, which provides a sense of enclosure around the yard and swimming pool. The saltboxes are joined by glass connectors, but only at ground level; each has its own staircase to second-floor bedrooms and baths. The architect relied almost entirely on five materials: cedar, which clads most of the exterior; oak, for much of the interior; limestone, for floors, countertops, terraces, and some external walls; darkened bronze, for various kinds of trim; and, of course, glass. “We had to limit the palette because the house is so big,” Masi explains. “You lose the essence of it if there’s too much going on.” This ethos harks back to the early 1980s, when firm founder and fellow Hall of Famer Harry Bates—now 94 and retired—built modest beach houses out of whatever he could find in local lumber yards, a necessary discipline that became part of the firm’s DNA. When Masi joined Bates in 1998, he began devising ways to keep things simple even as clients demanded more and more luxury.

This couple, intending that the property becomes a family heirloom passed down from generation to generation, wanted to make sure it would last. That was fine with Masi, who thought in centuries rather than decades while designing it. “We put a lot of redundancy into the building envelope,” he explains, noting that the house is sheathed in two layers of shingle-like boards with gutters and leaders sandwiched between them to keep water away from the weathertight shell. The cedar is fastened to the structure with custom stainless-steel clips that don’t penetrate the wood, avoiding the damage nails or screws could cause the boards when they expand and contract.

The architect didn’t make things easy for himself. Exterior walls and roofs, identically clad, meet without even a whiff of an overhang. Exposing the transition from one surface to another means there’s nowhere to hide even the smallest flaw. “It’s harder than it looks to pull that off,” Masi admits. “Everything has to be perfect.” That includes four “light chimneys,” his term for a series of massive bronze-clad skylights that project through the roof. They ensure light “cascades down through the stairwells,” he continues, an effect that’s enhanced by open-tread staircases hanging on thin vertical steel-and-oak struts that descend from the second-floor ceiling. The stairwells double as ideally illuminated display areas for larger pieces of art (the couple are passionate collectors). And where the house turns a 90-degree angle, the nearly cubic 18-by-18-foot glass-enclosed connector space serves as a sculpture gallery. Delicate cedar-slat screens provide necessary shade, while large, operable windows make it easy getting lage artworks in and out of the space.

The clients brought in Interior Design Hall of Fame member David Kleinberg to furnish the house. The founding partner of David Kleinberg Design Associates, who has worked on multiple residences for the same couple before, softened the vast main living area with a custom beige wool rug. Much of the furniture is upholstered in shades of gray, including custom club chairs and sofas and a pair of French 1950’s oak lounge chairs. The seating is gathered around two Fredrikson Stallard cast-acrylic coffee tables that sit on the rug like massive chunks of ice. A patinated-bronze and polished-copper suspended light sculpture by Niamh Barry adds a note of drama overhead.

But Kleinberg has no desire to hog credit for this house. “It’s clear that architecture was the highest priority,” he notes. “The artworks were second in importance. And then came the furnishings, which were to be laid back, relaxed, and supportive of the architecture and art.” What Kleinberg doesn’t mention is that many of the pieces he has so carefully curated could well become heirlooms in their own right.

---

---

katherine dalene weil, nick darin, nick braaksma, hung fai tang: bates masi + architects

lance duckett scott: david kleinberg design associates

orsman design: lighting consultant

steven maresca: structural engineer

men at work construction: general contractor

awg art advisory: art consultant

perry guillot: landscape consultant

maison gerard: oak lounge chairs, light sculpture (living area)

david gill gallery: coffee tables

Patterson Flynn: custom rug

joseph walsh studio: custom table (dining area)

victoria + albert: tub (bathroom)

apparatus: pendant fixtures (kitchen)

wolf: range (kitchen)

vent-a-hood: ventilation hood

sub-zero: refrigerator

bernd goeckler: glass table (sculpture gallery)

bybee stone company: limestone flooring and cladding

Keller Minimal Windows: windows and doors

These Residential Interiors Offer a Palette to Suit Every Mood

A trio of new residential interiors runs the emotional gamut from bright and sunny to serene and sophisticated.

Manuelle Gautrand Architecture, Paris

Natural light floods the award-winning architect’s first residential interior, a 1,300-square-foot duplex in a 17th-century Marais building, where ceilings were raised, a ribbon skylight installed, and the play of volumes and voids carefully calibrated to take full advantage of the expansive windows—not least in the living area, which is dominated by a stack of colorful blocks forming a sunny sculptural staircase and fireplace.

Lorla Studio, New York

Quiet sophistication reigns in this renovated 1,900-square-foot garden apartment, housed in a former 19th-century church, where the confidently cosmopolitan taste of its young professional woman owner is reflected in a neutral background palette—white walls, light wood floors—that sets off a characterful array of vintage and custom furniture, warm-brass and matte-black light fixtures with sculptural silhouettes, and a gallery’s worth of commissioned and collected artworks.

No Architects, Prague

Two striking paintings—a numerical abstraction by Vladimír Houdek and a melancholy dreamscape by Josef Bolf—set the program in this renovated 1,400-square-foot maisonette, the former’s numbers and raw edges reflected in the perforated pattern on the radiator covers and the ragged bottoms of the kitchen cabinet doors, the latter’s gently sorrowful mood echoed in a teardrop-shape pendant fixture and the meditative greige of a feature wall.

Tapiwa Matsinde Showcases Contemporary Design and Craft from Africa Through the Written Word

Interior Design: Your blog, atelier 55, tells the stories of designers, artisans, and creatives from across Africa and the diaspora. How significant a role did it have in starting your curating career?

Tapiwa Matsinde: The blog began in 2010 as a place to store ideas, images, and inspirations but it fueled the love of writing, research, and putting information into context that had been ignited working on my master’s degree. I soon understood there was something happening across Africa in terms of a contemporary creative reawakening, and I found that exciting. Looking back, when I started my blog, I had begun curating without even realizing it.

ID: Why is storytelling a good way to talk to communities and introduce them to contemporary African craft?

TM: Storytelling is an intrinsic part of human life. It helps create bridges that foster understanding. This has been important to my work as a champion of design and craft from Africa, where storytelling, particularly the oral kind, is an essential part of the various cultures.

ID: How is the approach to craft in the African countries you are familiar with different from that in a European context?

TM: One of the big differences is accessibility to artisans. Across the African continent, at a grassroots level, one has greater access to artisans and to wit­nessing the craft process. In the U.K. and other European countries I have visited, craft is often done behind closed doors—to see the process one has to be invited in, so access to craft is often through a retail or exhibition display. I think the Internet is increasingly allowing for craft processes to be shared—though we may not always get to see it in person, we can see it in images and videos. In terms of similarities, I would say that much like in Europe, as African craft gets utilized in design it is contributing to the creation of a high-end, luxury Africa aesthetic in which artisanal handwork is upheld as a defining characteristic.

ID: How did you get involved with Homo Faber?

TM: It was Alberto Cavalli, executive director of the Michelangelo Foundation, which puts on the event, who approached me. At the time exhibitions were being postponed or cancelled so it was amazing to me that something of this scale was still being planned. It spoke to me of a commitment to supporting artisans in a way that I was honored to be a part of.

ID: Can you give us a few more details about your project, “The Artisan: A crafted tea room?”

TM: It was a space where all visitors to Homo Faber were welcome to enter and rest a while, filled with handcrafted objects that they were not only able to look at but also interact with. They could sit on plush couches by Arcahorn, recline in Visionnaire’s thronelike Pavone armchairs inspired by the peacock’s plumage, marvel at the application of complex intricate hand-beading accentuating SoShiro’s Pok Butler sideboard, play a game of billiards, chess, or backgammon courtesy of exquisitely handcrafted games by Hillsideout, Lazo Studios, and Alexandra Llewellyn, respectively, or simply sit on an armchair by the window and gaze out on the lagoon.

ID: Homo Faber’s inaugural edition in 2018 was Europe-focused. Was it important to you to bring more global craft to the event?

TM: Yes, it was. This edition had Japan as the guest of honor and the intention for the tea room was for it to be the exhibition that furthered Homo Faber’s mission to embrace exceptional craftsmanship from different parts of the world.

This Vancouver Island Home Blends Japanese and Scandinavian Influences

Taking cues from Canadian countryside houses built from bricks, this 10,000-square-foot, two-story home features a contemporary vibe that fits its location in coastal Victoria, British Columbia. Designer Andrea Rodman began envisioning the interiors of the space, including its six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, from day one of the three-year project, even before architect Scott Posno and the builder signed on.

Thanks to the T-shape layout, two open courtyards and different wings invite the young family who lives here to enjoy a lifestyle that offers space for entertaining and privacy. One of the biggest challenges for Rodman consisted of reconciling the homeowners’ tastes and design visions—one leaned toward a more classic aesthetic while the other favored a modern look. Both of them, however, dreamed of a cozy family home that would suit them for many years. 

“The idea was having separation to the rooms but still maintaining an open feel, capturing traditional details without overpowering while also keeping the house minimalistic and understated from the inside to the outside,” explains Rodman. To achieve this aesthetic, she went with a white palette accented by oak tones, natural stone, and rattan, enabling the interiors to feel airy and connected to the outside. “Through this home, we wanted to capture the sophistication of mixing Scandinavian and Japanese design styles to find that unique balance,” says Rodman. 

Sprawling and elegant, this minimal home features a timeless collection of furniture and lighting with pieces from design masters as well as Rodman’s new online boutique, Hem Interiors. In the main bedroom, the 1970s Etcetera lounge chair by Jan Ekselius is a statement piece. Curated with the help of art consultant Alexandra Schafer—founder of VELVENOIR based in Europe—artworks by David T. Alexander, Bobbie Burgers, Kristen Giorgi, Brooke Holm, and Sun Young Min, among others, also contribute to the sophisticated yet warm atmosphere.

Terreo Studio Develops a Classical Yet Contemporary Residential Complex in Tulum, Mexico

When architect Eduardo Valdes and photographer/journalist Alexander Landsberg first visited Tulum, the buzzy beach destination on the east coast of Mexico’s Yucután Peninsula, the self-described “explorers and travelers” knew they’d found a suitably cosmopolitan yet laid-back place where they could put down professional roots. “We found Tulum to be totally inspiring and dynamic, a place where creativity and diversity abounds,” the German-born Landsberg enthuses. “It’s a very unique mix: small yet international, with global influences.” He adds that the climate is perfect—“always warm, with a nice breeze”—and the landscape drop-dead, courtesy of the omnipresent Caribbean and the cenotes and lagunas that dot the countryside.

The thirtysomethings were especially drawn to La Valeta, an up-and-coming but low-key neighborhood that abuts a national park. “We loved the vibe of the area and its inhabitants, a mix of Mayan families and creative folk from around the world,” says Valdes, who grew up in Mexico City. The real-estate market, they discovered, was saturated with sprawling, commercially driven condo projects but nothing of the intimate scale and understated style that spoke to their own aesthetic preferences. “We realized there was a huge demand for beautiful architecture that was not cookie-cutter,” the architect continues. So the entrepreneurial pair pooled their talents to found Terreo Studio in 2018 with the mission to design and develop boutique residential properties. “We found Tulum to be so special that we wanted to give something back to it,” Landsberg summarizes.

• 

• 

The creative collaborators globe-trotted for many months to collect ideas. A few destinations proved to be particularly inspirational, including the La Granja Ibiza hotel in Spain; the Scorpios beach club in Mykonos, Greece; and, closer to home, the Mexican towns Mérida, Oaxaca, and San Miguel de Allende. Based on their explorations, the studio mates drafted a short list of attributes they wanted their own properties to have: open-plan kitchen/living areas, superhigh ceilings, a strong connection to nature, and private alfresco living areas complete with pool—“a chill-out leisure space for when the homeowners don’t want to go to the beach,” Landsberg explains. Last but not least was a hip yet laid-back atmosphere. “We love the idea of creating an ambience.”

Terreo Studio’s debut development was Liana, a four-unit property completed in 2019 that quickly sold out. Their ambitions heightened, the duo next conceived this project, Fosil, a 10,700-square-foot four-story condominium building housing seven one-of-a-kind residences, ranging in size from a loft studio to a three-bedroom triplex penthouse. The design intent, Valdes says, “was to create a piece of architecture that resembled a modern-day ruin, a mystical building with simple, clean lines that would fit into the Tulum vernacular yet stand apart.” A composition of staggered arches conceals the facade and entry court, a poetic nod to classical architecture. Several of those arches were actually added on the fly during construction as the building started to take shape—an example of Terreo Studio’s improvisational approach. “We design and build in a very organic way,” Valdes admits. “Whenever we think a feature can benefit from a certain modification, we make it.”

Distinguishing the exterior is a type of local stone embedded with tiny fossils, which sparked the development’s name. “Eduardo and I got the inspiration during a trip to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, where we found many ammonite relics,” Landsberg explains. “Here in Tulum, if you dig down into the earth, you’ll find this particular white stone with fossilized shells, so the connection is close.”

Such emphasis on regional materials is a throughline of the studio’s projects (which now include two more condominiums and a villa in various stages of completion). “The use of simple natural finishes from the area give the spaces an authentic character,” Valdes says. The loft interiors feature other indigenous treatments, including chukum, a limestone-based stucco incorporating resin from the titular tree, which is endemic to the area. The chalky finish was deployed for walls and floors throughout, as well as for built-in features like bathroom vanities. Timber used for kitchen cabinetry and bedroom millwork is also a native species.

As for decor, Terreo Studio was hired by many of the homeowners, including the L.A.-based musician who bought the penthouse, to oversee furnishings. Almost every element was custom designed and produced by the partners via the interiors store they now run parallel to the studio, and for which they collaborate with artisans across the country and source items during their travels. “Last year we had the opportunity to take over a furniture store and integrate it into the practice,” Valdes explains. “Our vision for the store is in motion; we are constantly changing collections.” (Although antique Yucatecan pottery is a staple.) The pair’s philosophy for interior design mirrors their architectural ad-libbing. “We don’t have a fully complete design concept ready when we start decorating; we try to integrate the right proportions of objects and furniture into the architecture as we go along,” Valdes notes. Such a panoptic approach and attention to detail is unusual for the Tulum market—as is the fact that Terreo Studio offers a service to help homeowners AirBnB their units when not in residence. Care to come and stay awhile?

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

arturo loaiza: terreo studio

luma arquitectos: general contractor, mep

terreo decor: woodwork

terreo shop: objects

ZARA HOME: Bed linens