Garden Rowhouse: A Combination of Three Homes Horizontally with An Expansive Open-Plan Floor Plate

It is a pre-construction project located in Toronto, Canada with 3,600 sqft in size. Designed by Batay-Csorba Architects, Garden Rowhouse is designed to fill a void in Toronto’s housing market. The development of this rowhouse combines three homes horizontally instead of vertically with an expansive 48-ft-wide open-plan floor plate boasted by each home.

Goals

There are two reasons why this project is designed to fill a void in Toronto’s housing market. The first reason is after designing a lot of Toronto homes, rowhouses and townhouses limit to 4 stories high with 12-15-ft wide. The architect offers an alternative housing typology that is different and not found in the city.

The second reason is the options of Toronto housing are limited for the aging demographic, especially limited to impractical types such as the condo that are geared a young demographic with lacking amenities and small square footage or where a narrow, traditional Victorian bay-and-gable that has four stories. This project tries to provide a liveable alternative for all.

Design

It is a project where three typical 16-ft-wide Toronto lots are combined to organize three homes horizontally. Each home has an expansive 48-ft-wide open-plan floor plate that can not be found in most Toronto neighborhoods. The interior of each unit also wraps around a double-height light-filled courtyard, enclosed with large operable doors for flooding the space with natural light and seasonal flexibility. Each unit has a minimum of 1 bedroom on the main floor with all living spaces in 2 stories, resulting in a perfect and liveable space.