Project: Flow House / Location: Toronto, Ontario / Size: 2,500 square feet / Architecture/Interior Design/Landscape Design: Dubbeldam Architecture + Design / Contractor: DDF Contracting Ltd. / Consultants: Blackwell Structural Engineers / Photography: Riley Snelling

Located in midtown Toronto, Flow House, by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design, is a semi-detached Victorian-era house that has been reconfigured for a ceramic artist and her family. The transformation of the 130-year-old home included adding additional living space on the back and top of the home, improving connections to the outdoors and updating the interior and rear yard for contemporary living. The traditional front façade remains, while the interior reflects the family’s personality.

Though less than 16 feet wide and measuring about 2,500 square feet, the home seems larger through a strategy of compression and expansion: Narrowed interstitial spaces enclose, creating a feeling of compression, then open to larger spaces with lofty ceilings. And throughout there are moments of surprise and delight, such as the merging of interior and exterior spaces, the introduction of natural light in unexpected places and the playful sculpting of elements that establish an organic quality to the home.

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“Inspired by the homeowner’s practice as a ceramicist, the notion of tactility and craft permeates the home through materials, forms, patterns and textures,” the firm says in its project statement. “Suggesting a complementary hybrid of Scandinavian and Mediterranean influences, the wood cabinetry, screens and flooring in warm white oak are accented by concrete and Carrara marble sinks, antiqued brass fixtures, and hand-molded clay pendants.”

A clean backdrop of white walls and shelving provides a blank canvas to showcase the family’s collection of art, tapestries and sculpture from local artists, artifacts gathered during travels abroad and the owner’s own ceramics. The firm used color to animate the interstitial spaces of the home, including terra cotta tiles that are laid in a herringbone pattern in the entry foyer and a wall of geometric cerulean blue tiles defines the bar between the kitchen and dining room.

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Fluid contours – a deliberate contrast to the rectilinear floorplan – is a dominant design theme in the home, so the house’s interior elements appear sculpted rather than built. This is especially evident in the helical staircase connecting all four floors, a focal point that expresses the home’s sense of flow. Awash in natural light from the skylight above, the winding balustrade and natural oak treads cast shifting shadows throughout the day.

“Curvilinear forms are employed throughout,” says Heather Dubbeldam, principal of the eponymous firm. “Arched openings between rooms incite anticipation as they frame views of what lies beyond, resonating with curved walls, display nooks, the kitchen island and banquette, further enhancing the house’s sculptural sensibility.”

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In addition to utilizing the latest sustainable systems and materials to promote well-being, large windows and skylights provide abundant light, natural ventilation and connections to the outdoors. Mahogany-framed, floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors on the third floor provide access to a roof deck, while a similarly lofty door in the kitchen opens to the furnished back patio.

Similar spatial strategies continue in the design of the rear yard. The volumes of charcoal-colored panels that comprise the new rear façade are stepped back on multiple planes to create a roof deck and recessed entrance. In the back garden, the firm again used compression and expansion through narrowed planting beds that open to wider spaces designed for play, dining and relaxation. The wooden pergola, brick pavers and ochre outdoor furniture are a nod to the various temperate climates the family has experienced together, while the landscaping of lush plantings provides interest year-round.