VALLEY HOUSE

VALLEY HOUSE

While the owners of this classic 1970’s era, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired estate home in Mississauga, Ontario loved its warm, inviting feel, they felt it was time for updating. Specifically, they wanted to update the dining room, add an informal breakfast area with a balcony, along with a state-of-the-art kitchen. The architectural challenge was to come up with a design that not only blended seamlessly with the residence’s rich palette of stone and wood, but to bring more natural light into the house.

Our design for this modern home enhances its original layout by bringing natural light deep into this rather wide floor plan. With the house already having five existing skylights extending from the front door, axially aligning with the existing dining room, we furthered the rhythm of skylights by adding a new “linear skylight,” straddling the updated dining room and the new kitchen/breakfast area, to create a naturally illuminated “ceremonial path” for arriving guests.

On the exterior of the addition, the dining and kitchen areas are expressed as two flagstone clad walls separated by an indented vertical window, thereby limiting views to the north so as to maintain privacy from the adjacent neighbour.

A rich palette of stone and wood, along with the introduction of radiant heated limestone floors in the kitchen, including “Wenge” and “Embuya” woods in the cabinetry, and dark green “Ubatuba” granite countertops, blends with the existing house, as if they had always been there.

LOCATION: Mississauga, Ontario

ARCHITECT: (original house): Fred Roman Architect

ARCHITECT: (renovation/addition): LINEVISION Architects

DESIGN LEADERSHIP: Michael Poitras,
Principal-in-Charge of Design

CLIENT: Withheld

STATISTICS:

  • No. of storeys: 2
  • Total floor area
    (addition/renovation):
    910 ft2 (84 m2)
  • Total floor area
    (after addition/renovation):
    10,650 ft2 (990 m2)

MATERIALS:

  • Flagstone walls
  • Wood windows & doors
  • Cedar shake roof
  • Cedar soffits
  • Copper flashing
  • Panga Panga hardwood floors
  • Limestone floors
  • Textured leather wall
    (between dining & kitchen)
  • Ipe wood decking

GENERAL PROGRAM:
(Addition/Renovation)

  • Dining room
  • Open concept kitchen & informal dining
  • Wood and glass balcony
  • Circular concrete koi pond
    (not built)

COST: $320,000 (addition/renovation)

COMPLETION: 2001