Honorable Mention: International Architecture Awards 2024
Canvas House | Toronto, Ontario, Canada | 2023

Architects: PARTISANS
Lead Architect: Alex Josephson
Design Team: Suzan Ibrahim and Nathan Bishop
General Contractor: Duffy and Associates
Client: Private
Photographers: Younes Bounhar and Teddy Shropshire

On first glance, Canvas House appears distinct within its neighborhood. Surrounded by Georgian homes, the square house exhibits a monochromatic, yet undulating brick façade that contrasts the regularity of the symmetrical and conventional neighboring residences. Operating as both a house and a vessel for a contemporary art collection, Canvas House personifies the art it contains through its innovative sculptural façade. Inspired by the client’s passion for collecting art, Canvas House took the façade as opportunity to create a sculptural canvas. The original bond pattern formed by a repeating unit of five bricks presents a modular, consistent form that is informed by the visual effects of Larry Poons’ early works.

Optics are accomplished by pairing the single-colored brick with individually-improvised corbel variations, allowing the design to showcase the brick’s ability to encapsulate the elegance of a Georgian home, while at the same time express meaning without relying on traditional forms. By prioritizing the possibilities of the resonant form of bricks, Canvas House is both organic and orderly. As an experiment with materiality and technique, Canvas House pushes the boundaries of what architecture can communicate.

The organicism of the exterior façade finds its way inside through the gentle curvature of walls that blend seamlessly with the ceilings and architectural fixtures. The fluid interior experience is defined by a classic center hallway, where the layout leverages materially-muted wall space to highlight the works of art inside. The door handles and handrail are carved from the wall producing an interior dimensionality that is emphasized by the careful integration of light.

This results in a calm, airy, and contemplative interior that succeeds in harmonizing sophistication with the experimental forms of contemporary artists. Inside and out, the interplay of light and shadow creates a sense of depth that is mutually spatially ambiguous and functional. The rhythmic façade responds to function by swelling outward to form an overhang above the door and receding to allow light around the second-floor skylight. The movement within the masonry is unscripted yet arranged - reminiscent of the motions of a theater drape, it’s an ode to the client’s background in theater production. The novelty of the design lies in its ability to retain the grace of traditional Georgian homes without a need to standardize, and this grants Canvas House the ability to participate in the uniformity of its Georgian counterparts without being conventional.

Canvas House is a painting that uses brick as its medium. The façade is a performance of form and light that creates a theatrical experience every time one enters and exits the home. It’s a study of the different ways brick and masonry can be sculpted. Although flat, Larry Poons’ early dot paintings flutter with three-dimensionality, appearing like glowing pixels. The choreographed brick is a response to a three-dimensional pixelation that could convey movement in not just form, but also light. Voxels and pixels move beyond a three-dimensional form when light bounces between and within the dints of shadows cast by the masonry. The undulation of the façade transcends its wave-like forms – it awakens with the flickering participation of light.

A descendent of the pixel, the voxel is indicative of technological advancements that push the boundaries of our represented surroundings. The bond pattern is called a voxel-bond, a new type of brick bond informed by these technologies. A piece of custom architecture that is designed around the unique lifestyle of the owners, Canvas House offers the dweller an experience that is their own behaviors and interests manifested in architectural solutions. The house features state-of-the-art hydronic heating and cooling, triple-glazed windows, and the design is able to accommodate a green roof, which will be installed in the near future.