School of Architecture alumni receive end of year design accolades
Canadian Interiors and Designlines have released their 2023 end-of-year lists and both feature the work of University of Waterloo School of Architecture Alumni.
Canadian Interiors Best of Canada
Celebrating 26 years, Canadian Interiors has sponsored an annual national interior design awards program. It is Canada’s only design competition focusing on interior design projects and products without regard to size, budget or location.
For a full list of winners visit Canadian Interiors Best of Canada 2023.
Imagine a ceramic sculptor who loved the earthy red tones of vintage Toronto brick so much she “unrenovated” her house to expose its Flemish-bonded masonry.
Leslieville Renovation - Asquith Architecture Inc.
Led by Canadian architect, Heather Asquith (BES '94, BArch '96) Asquith Architecture is a modern architecture firm that has been designing thoughtful, intelligent architecture since 2010. Serving Greater Toronto and surrounding areas, ASQUITH specializes in modern home design and large-scale renovations in both urban and rural environments.
This was an extensive renovation to a semi-detached house in Leslieville Ontario for an accomplished ceramic artist. When the house was initially removed of all its interior finishes, our client fell in love with the existing brick, and it was decided the house would be insulated from the exterior and clad in metal. This allowed the brick to be exposed and drove a rustic aesthetic in the interior with exposed wood floor joists creating a loft like feel.
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The project aims for a sense of refuge and prospect in a space for private study, where horizontal windows shift the view across the garden to a panorama of the neighbourhood beyond.
Historian's Library - Dowling Architects
Dowling Architects, founded by Paul and Catherine Dowling (both BES '86, BArch '89) focus on small projects that allow them to be intimately involved with the craft of architecture and building.
Wood clad additions to a small home connect kitchen and sitting area to a rear garden, where a library for two historians is embedded into the gentle slope. The project aims for a sense of refuge and prospect in a space for private study, where horizontal windows shift the view across the garden to a panorama of the neighbourhood beyond. Salvaged western red cedar from the existing residence is milled and re-integrated, and Passive House inspired details incorporate high insulation levels, minimal thermal bridging and careful attention to air tightness. Constructed by the architects with undergraduate architecture students, allowing the opportunity to modify and develop details as the project evolved.
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In this adaptive reuse project, a century-old car garage was transformed into a doughnut shop where the oozing mortar in the joints of the concrete-block service counter looks good enough to eat.
Glaze, Toronto - Kilogram Studio
Co-founded by Kfir Gluzberg (BES '07), Kilogram Studio focuses on the efficient and intelligent execution of well-crafted and ambitious projects.
Commercial car garages are a wild card in Toronto’s downtown. Often located in old buildings, these industrial conversions are the setting for some of the city’s popular social spaces: breweries, restaurants, and cafes. Their rich textures, exposed structures, and large openings result in beautiful daylit spaces. There was an obvious parallel between the absorptive nature of the historic masonry textures and the rich textures of the doughnuts that would replace its industrial nature.
The interior was designed to capture a delicious moment, where float spreads stucco like icing. Visitors are surrounded by the textures of creaminess frozen in time. The materials that capture this are visible in the exposed aggregate of the polished floors, stucco finishes on the exterior sign and interior walls, and the oozing mortar in the joints of the service counter.
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Designlines Top Interiors of 2023
At the end of each year, we reflect on the projects we’ve shared with our readers, the stories we were able to tell and the creativity bursting at the seams of our city. This year, we look back with pride. Toronto’s design community boasts remarkable talent, but before we usher in 2024 with a fresh lineup of extraordinary interior design, let’s take a moment to revisit some of the standout interiors from 2023.
For a full list of winners visit Designlines’ Top Interiors of 2023.
A Victorian Reno in Little Italy - AMA
AMA was founded by Anya Moryoussef (BArch '04, MArch '06) to prusue the deliberate and imaginate application of design to daily life. James Swain (BAS '05, MArch '10) was the project lead on the project.
Faced with an ailing Victorian dwelling, the typical move is to strip out every fissured plastered wall. The next step is to modernize the interior by way of a full gut reno, but where’s the romance in such reckless disembowelment?
That predictable scheme didn’t fit the lifestyle of this semi-retired bookish couple, who work from home and have a rich social life. They valued their 150-year-old semi in Little Italy with its grand rooms that trail over 3,000 square feet, where they spent 30 years raising a family and building memories. “They didn’t want to live in a new, modern house,” says Anya Moryoussef, the architect behind AMA, enlisted for the renovation. Together with James Swain, the project’s lead, the pair recalibrated the residence over 10 months, give or take.
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The kitchen is about “layering old and new. You’ve got existing Victorian trims against high-tech materials like stainless steel and high-pressure laminate,” says architect Anya Moryoussef.
Boston - Wanda Ely Architect
Wanda Ely (BES '96, BArch '98) launched Wanda Ely Architect Inc. in 2011. Each project begins as a thoughtful search to understand the desires of the client and to identify and draw out the meaningful qualities of the environment, which together form the inspiration for the design.
Located on a quiet street in Toronto’s East End, this narrow semi-detached house was completely reconfigured to create a private refuge for a well-traveled couple who both work from home. The clients wanted to maximize the functionality of their small space, while also creating a uniquely beautiful and bespoke home.
Drawing from an eclectic mix of inspiration from the clients’ lives - including the high-contrast photography of Bill Brandt, nautical design, and the bold, curving forms of rocky Icelandic landscapes - the result is a living sculpture animated by light, shadow, art, and nature.
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Dramatically sculpted bookshelves define the second floor where the full height of the reconfigured floors is seen in the 13-foot ceilings, created by a dormer addition.
High Park Residence - DPO
Yvonne Popovska (BES '01, MArch '05) co-founded and leads DPO Architecture and wants each project she works on to feel like it belongs in its cultural and social context and to add something positive to the built environment. Her pared down aesthetic aims to create spaces that inspire wonder and joy, each bound by a sense of craft and considered detail.
Home to three generations, the High Park house offers a retreat amidst city life and reinvigorates the personality of a previously tired building. “My role as a designer is to design spaces for their own identity to evolve int, rather than try to impose my own vision over it,” Popovska says. “Planning for a large wall to display kids’ artwork or incorporating a quirky table lamp, made by the client’s mother, into a room’s final deco—these are the things that give this home its own story.”
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The opening between the kitchen and dining room was reframed to add an arch, a nod to the home’s original architectural style.