Stouffville home inspired by the landscape
Modern rural residence designed with a nod to farm estate architecture
With 30 acres of land and an architect’s imagination, the sky’s the limit.
It was a happy challenge for Toronto architect Trevor McIvor as he combined the natural bucolic charm of Stouffville, about 50 kilometres north of the city, with right-angled geometric lines.
Stouffville Residence was completed in 2017, after two years in design and construction. It has two levels that cover 5,000 square feet and offers dramatic elements such as cantilevered roofs and a granite wall to provide privacy while the home’s immense walls of windows offer stunning southern views. Upstairs is the kitchen, living and dining areas with a large deck, a master bedroom, dressing room with ensuite, a deck, and service area with pantry, plus a garage. The lower level contains a sitting area, two guest bedrooms, shared bathroom, gym and steam room. A massive open staircase connects the two levels.
Architect Trevor McIvor, Trevor McIvor Architect Inc., in Toronto, answers a few questions about Stouffville Residence: What was your inspiration in creating this home?
For all the work I do, the inspiration is the landscape — that and the client’s requirements. The first main gesture was the large stone wall. With landscape that large you need a gesture on the same scale. I did grow up working on a farm and every year, when they turn up the soil, they take all the stones and stack them as walls. We thought this large stone wall would pay homage to the farm typology. What are the home’s sustainable features? I use passive systems because they’re intelligent design and don’t add any construction costs — like intelligently gauging what length the overhangs need to be to protect the height of windows you have. In today’s modern open-plan houses, it’s very easy to cross-ventilate them. I also use the stair tower as a bit of a heat stack; as the heat builds up and is released at the top, it drives air flow from the bottom which is naturally cooler. We did concrete floors with throw rugs throughout, and concrete also has a mediating effect on heating and cooling. We also excavated an area almost the size of the house to the south of it, and there are 10 tons of geothermal loops, laid down in the ground, that run back to the mechanical system … In the winter it pulls heat from the ground and uses that to heat water running through the floors. In the summer you reverse the loops and pull heat out of the house. What were the challenges in designing and building this house?
The biggest challenge when you have a large blank space is trying to focus on what’s going to be the main idea behind the home — what direction it’s going to take. Once that was settled the design process went very well. When you design a home in the city you’re completely restricted by the zoning parameters. In cottage country, the properties can tell you what the design should be. This was basically a big open farmer’s field, so how do you create some context in such an open area? That’s where we had the idea of creating one grounding element: this one big wall.