Page 95 - enLIGHTenment October 2016

Victorian Secret

A traditional home in

The architecture
Toronto receives a of this new build
features elements

Modern update to suit from the surrounding
neighborhood (i.e.
the triangle window
its quaint neighborhood.
echoing the roo ine

across the street).

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LISA PETROLE

W

hat if the perfect location for
a Contemporary style-loving

couple with two young sons
turned out to be on a street

lined with Victorian homes?

For these married boutique owners, it meant call-
ing award-winning designer John Tong – who had

previously worked with the couple on their store
design – to transform the xer-upper Victorian

into something distinctly more modern without

looking completely out of place.
This was no simple faceli ; it was a down-to-

the-studs type of reconstruction that took three
years to accomplish and required tearing up the

oors, walls, and basement. The directive given

to Tong, who heads the multidisciplinary design
studio +tongtong, was to renovate and build an

addition onto the traditional Victorian home
that would expand the area of livable space

while remaining true to the neighborhood. The

Toronto-based design rm also met the additional
challenge of emphasizing natural materials and

light. Inspired by rural living and the original build
date of the home, the industrial materials selected

by Tong and his team accentuate the re-imagined

architectural qualities in what was to become an
unmistakably contemporary space.

Grey and black zinc is used throughout the
exterior and interior of the home because the de-

sign team felt the material could e ectively blend

traditional aspects within a new contemporary
scheme. Inside the house, a vertical sha brings

light from large skylights down three oors to il-
luminate the ground oor while highlighting a zinc

wall and ceiling above the kitchen. This impressive

design element happens to be Tong’s favorite in
the house.
Grey and black tones were used to unify
“I really embraced the slot between the two traditional and contemporary motifs.
oors,” he explains. “It turns the second oor

OctOber 2016 | enLIGHTenment Magazine 93