IS THAT YOU, SHOEBOX?
Creating space without adding a whole new floor.
Much like the woman who lived in a shoe, the owners of a small, single-storey shoebox home in Rosemont–la Petite-patrie were starting to feel constricted.
To accommodate their growing family, the couple wanted an additional bedroom, larger living spaces, and a greater separation between the private and social areas of the house. All without adding a second storey.
“From the beginning, the clients knew that they didn't want to build up and it seemed a shame for us too, to drown the shoebox with another building on top of it,” says Thomas Balaban, founder of Thomas Balaban Architect (TBA). “They loved the fact that the house was a `maison de plain-pied,' and they didn't want to lose that by adding a second floor.”
These historic single-storey homes were originally built around 100 years ago, mostly for manual workers and their families, and recent renovations to these have sought to preserve some of their original features. So the new iteration of this home, nicknamed Denormanville by TBA, is a slightly improved red-brick shoebox house with a new contemporary annex that's connected to the main residence via a corridor.
“From an urban point of view, we really wanted to keep the idea of the shoebox alive, albeit a contemporary version of it recreated amongst other three-storey buildings,” explains Balaban. “We also wanted the existing house to feel like a figure that's there all the time, like part of the family.”
The corridor that runs along the east side of the property — and acts as the annex's structural spine — contains a bathroom, storage and laundry facilities, while the annex includes a kitchen, dining area, and an entrance. The original shoebox houses a living room, two bedrooms (one of which was added by TBA during the transformation), a bathroom and another entrance.
“The quieter part of the house — the living room and the bedrooms — are in the back, and all of the more boisterous rooms like the kitchen and the dining room are right on the street, so there are different areas for different modes of living,” explains Balaban. “Every room has its connection to some exterior space, and each one of the outside spaces has its own personality too, so, the area around the tree has one vibe and the backyard has a completely different vibe, which is good.”
Interestingly, the home's architectural masterpiece — the exterior wall of the corridor that blends into the façade with a unique curve that mirrors the tree well — came as the result of some rough, initial drawings.
“In the first sketches, we just drew a radius around the trees and it kind of started like that, with the clients,” says Balaban. “But they were on board since day one.”
Taking the preservation of the original shoebox structure and the site's mature Siberian elms as its primary points of departure, Balaban designed the extension to connect and contrast with the original home, unifying them through clean lines, minimal detailing, and a palette of light maple, concrete and white paint, contrasting these with the pale brick.
“We were looking for something that was really graphic as well as light, bright and airy,” says Balaban about the unique tone of brick that was used for the streetfront structure. “We wanted it to stand out a little without being completely in your face, so it's sort of pink and has an alive, textured feel that works well with the pale concrete floors.”
Windows offer a connection to both the front garden and courtyard, including a rounded glass wall that overlooks the pebbled courtyard in between the old and new houses. A glazed wall also offers a view from the entry to the enclosed patio, where there's plenty of room to play and grow.
Completed: 2020
Size: 1,450 square feet
Materials used for façade: Pale-coloured and textured brick
Materials used for interiors: Maple, concrete and white paint
Architect: Thomas Balaban Architect (TBA)
Project Team: Jennifer Thorogood, Mikaèle Fol and Pascale Julien Structural Engineer: Latéral Construction: Rockethammer