CANADIAN ARCHITECT 12/21
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AWARD OF MERIT
MARKHAM Toronto, Ontario Ja Architecture Studio
Older, low-rise urban neighbourhoods are under tremendous pressure to increase their density. A common mid-20th-century answer to this chronically recurring supply-and-demand problem was to plunk down new mid-rise or high-rise multi-unit buildings wherever a sufficient quantity of small, older lots could be bought up, without much regard for what this rough patchwork did to the urban fabric. Since then, zoning has become more attuned to context, and ‘gentle densification’ has become a hot topic.
This project argues that there is more to successful gentle densification getting the grain and height right: it also hinges on a willingness to embrace new typologies, along with styles that cannot be classified as either ‘modern’ or ‘heritage’. Ja Architecture describes Toronto’s Markham Street as a thoroughfare “where anomalies are the norm.” Adding to the street’s already-heterogenous mix of low-rise housing types, Ja proposes replacing an end unit in a series of old
Markham’s barrel-vaulted form contrasts with the peaked roofs of other houses on the street and provides a slightly larger amount of inhabitable space. Six interlocking residential units—including three two-storey units, two bachelor studios, and a live-work laneway suite—are carved into the vaulted volume. The units are individually accessed, mostly from the public laneway running alongside the site.
ABOVE
CA Dec 21.indd 56
2021-11-17 12:43 PM