Datum House
Toronto, Ontario
[a+id] Residential
56 sqm | 600 sqft
Currently under construction
Expected completion 2023
 
Project Team large [medium] design office
Nadia Cannataro, Francesco Martire
Structural Blackwell
Mechanical Elite H.V.A.C. Designs

The primary programmatic objectives of the project were to create a functional kitchen conducive for entertaining containing increased storage, and a bar.  A Victorian house in the west end of Toronto, the project is characterized by a precise removal of a ground floor portion of the rear volume of the house. A more energy efficient, functional, and compelling piece is stitched into its place.

A surgical partial removal of two existing interior walls creates more physical and visual continuities to the living and dining spaces located at the front of the house and supports a new set of movement patterns defined by the reorganized kitchen.

A new ribbon of windows in reconstructed ground floor exterior walls wrap around the corner to fill the kitchen with natural light. A new foyer is defined by custom millwork combining a new shelf, bench, and coat closet. The project also includes the proper rebuilding of an existing crawl space under the space of the kitchen with a new insulated concrete slab, insulated exterior walls and new infrastructure; HVAC, plumbing and electrical. 

The top of new openings, the top of new windows, the top of new custom millwork, the underside of bulkheads establishes the datum at a height of 2.1 metres above the floor referencing the top of existing openings and serves as a way of maintaining the beautiful existing Victorian plaster ceiling detailed ornament. The project explores the intersections between old and new. It does so through cohabitation by sleeving a contemporary renovation into an ornament laced historical context.