Project Winner

The client had grown up in this downtown Toronto Chinatown building, the site also of her family’s tofu-making business. But she had no sentimental attachment to its “found” state.

The building had fallen into disrepair and had been abandoned for years following an unsuccessful renovation attempt by a previous owner.

The client asked designer Johnson Chou to retain the commercial component, reduced in scale, for leasing purposes.

She also wanted an elegant, minimalist interior that would make the space appear larger. To that end, Chou gutted the premises to create a daylight-drenched atrium with spaces on the second floor linked by a bridge. Now rid of the former maze of little bedrooms, the upstairs has an open, loft-like feel.
To make the house feel larger than its actual dimensions, he cleverly “borrowed” exterior space by composing windows and circulation patterns to frame views of nearby Toronto landmarks such as the CN Tower and the new Ontario College of Art and Design. By focusing on long views, the building appropriates adjacent surroundings as its own, distracting the viewer from the foreground and giving rise to the illusion of a more generous interior space.

Robbie: I like the bridge.
Alsop: The way it brings in light from the top is quite interesting.
Niven: I like the level of contrasts: black and white, dark and light.