Tesseract House / Phaedrus Studio

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Text description provided by the architects. Located in Toronto’s western lakeside streetcar suburb, this single-family residence proves contextual while owing little to convention and serving as the antithesis to recent vernaculars. By simply and unconventionally engaging the immediate context this contemporary alternative has an impactful, yet unimposing outward presence. This geometry and the depth of experience from which the house derives its name is not provocatively innovative but nuanced, both simple and complex, revealing itself over time. All of this within the constraints of conventional local residential construction, the Tesseract House unapologetically desires to be more than just a place to live.

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A self-initiated, architect-led design-develop-build project, Tesseract house was not designed with a specific client in mind. Rather, it was conceived as a business case to prove that one can create great contemporary architecture that fulfills a demand in the marketplace, while demonstrating that unbridled creativity generates innovative and artful spaces, using conventional and readily available construction methods. All of this was accomplished without breaking the bank and with a typical budget for a house of this kind.

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The project has no programmatic limitations, enabling the design team to experiment with, and implement ideas that would not typically be seen in more conventional homes. The responses to the site constraints informed the big design ideas in order to allow the house to function well as a dwelling as well as be of the highest comfort standards, in relation to having access to natural light and fresh air. This intent was carried all the way down to the detailing of the house where the various textures and materials are elegantly and thoughtfully joined together.