This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
Architectural Record logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Architectural Record logo
  • NEWS
    • Latest News
    • Interviews
    • Reviews
    • Commentary
    • Editorials
  • PROJECTS
    • Building Types
    • Interior Design
    • Museums & Arts Centers
    • Adaptive Reuse
    • Colleges & Universities
    • Lighting
    • Snapshot
  • HOUSES
    • Record Houses
    • House of the Month
    • Featured Houses
    • Kitchen and Bath
  • PRODUCTS
    • Material World
    • Categories
    • Award Winners
    • Case Studies
    • Partners in Design
    • Trends & Insights
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Best Architecture Schools
    • Top 300 Firms
    • Theme Issues
    • Record Houses
    • Record Products
    • Good Design Is Good Business
    • Design Vanguard
    • Historical Archive
    • Cocktail Napkin Sketch
    • Videos
  • CALL FOR ENTRIES
    • Record Houses
    • Guess the Architect Contest
    • Submit Your Work
  • CONTINUING ED
    • Architectural Technology
    • Architect Continuing Education
    • Continuing Education Center
    • Digital Academies
  • EVENTS
    • Record on the Road
    • Innovation Conference
    • Women In Architecture
    • Webinars
    • Advertising Excellence Awards
  • MORE
    • Subscribe
    • Customer Service
    • Digital Edition
    • eNewsletter
    • Interactive Spotlight
    • Store
    • Custom Content Marketing
    • Research
    • Sponsor Insights
    • eBooks
  • CONTACT
    • Advertise
Home » Ravine Residence
House of the MonthResidential Architecture

Ravine Residence

March 19, 2008
Ingrid Spencer
KEYWORDS Toronto
Reprints
No Comments
Most people are put out when it comes to deciding whether or not to bring their aging parents into their home. Not Cindy Rendely’s clients for the Ravine Residence. Rendely, principal of Toronto-based Cindy Rendely Architexture, says her clients, a couple in their 40’s with three teenage sons, had no problem having their aging parents move in with them. “It was a problem for the parents, not for my clients,” she says. “My clients always knew their parents would live with them. It was just a question of how.” Rendely’s design for the family answered that question, with a 6,800-square-foot home in the North York neighborhood of central Toronto. While that size of home might sound large to some, consider how many people it was designed for—the couple, three teenagers, their aging grandparents and a caregiver couple. “And they are very low key,” says Rendely. “Every space in this house had to exhibit efficiency and practicality. While my clients have the means to enjoy whatever lifestyle they want, they are very humble and choose to live in a home where every area has a purpose and is not wasteful.
 
That said, Rendely, who was trained as a goldsmith and jewelry designer before becoming an architect, had beauty on her brain as well as practicality. She has built her reputation on designing structures that incorporate economy of scale with both minimal palettes and a variety of textures (think few materials used in many different ways), and this six-bedroom, five-bathroom home is no different. Built on a double lot on one of the many ravines located in and around central Toronto, the house was designed for a private, communal family lifestyle, with a rear façade that opens up toward the ravine, essentially turning its brick-and-aluminum-clad back to the street.
 
The house is three levels—main living spaces on the ground floor, master bedroom and kids’ rooms upstairs, and a basement level built into the sloping site on the rear. You enter the house on the center level. Once inside, the severity of the front façade is soon forgotten, as a bright vestibule welcomes you. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls wash the main living spaces on the ground floor in sunlight and bring the outside in. To the right is the grandparents’ suite, a full apartment with kitchenette, made to feel intimate with lower ceiling heights than the rest of the home. While Rendely says she didn’t follow ADA codes to the letter, she did make the entire floor accessible—no stairs, pocket doors instead of swinging doors, and a walk-in shower with a built-in bench in the grandparents’ suite. “While my initial design called for an elevator that would allow the grandparents access to the basement level—which contains a suite for a caregiver couple–and the ravine outside, my clients decided against it. They thought having an elevator in their home was just too grand seeming.” While the grandparents must be content with their expansive view of the ravine, the rest of the family can access it by a flight of wide steps that leads from an outdoor terrace.
 
The clients’ program demands didn’t include specific surfaces and materials, and Rendely says she convinced them to trust her judgment about most but not all such decisions. Her jewelry-making background is apparent in her use of Eramosa limestone as a signature material, cut and finished in a handful of different ways to bring out its hidden properties. On the outside of the home the stone is splitfaced and rugged, while on the inside it’s hammered and cut, polished and carved to provide a variety of surfaces throughout. Similarly she used one wood—white oak—with different stains on floors and for the custom-built pieces that make up about 90 percent of the furniture.
 
With three fireplaces, radiant floor heating throughout, and all that floor-to-ceiling glass, the home is comfortable year-round. According to the homeowners, the feeling of being immersed in the landscape makes everyone in the family, from teen to elder, feel like they’re experiencing the home for the first time each day, as they watch the light shift and the seasons change.

 

AR Subscribe

Recent Articles by Ingrid Spencer

Circuit of The Americas

The George W. and Laura Bush Residence

Quick Take: Robert A. M. Stern Architects' George W. Bush Presidential Center

Related Articles

Ravine Residence - House of the Month -

House on Ravine Edge

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

Report Abusive Comment

More Videos

AR Tremco Webinar


 


 

Events

December 12, 2019

Improving Building Delivery with BIM

Credits: 1 AIA LU/Elective; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 IACET CEU
May qualify for learning hours through most Canadian architectural associations

BIM brings countless advantages to the construction team, but the biggest benefit lies with the owner. For architects continuing to develop and enhance delivery methods, BIM is the solution. In this webinar with Rob Glisson, AIA, principal at ROJO Architecture, see how BIM can help you reduce risk, accelerate schedules, establish more accurate budgets, decrease costs, and better serve your clients.

December 17, 2019

Minimizing Risk in Blindside Waterproofing Applications

Credits: 1 AIA LU/Elective; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 IACET CEU

May qualify for learning hours through most Canadian architectural associations

This course will identify blindside waterproofing product technologies, their differences, the criteria for product performance, and how to design a waterproofing system accordingly. Best practices for mitigating application risks and managing critical areas prone to moisture infiltration will be reviewed, including the sequence of installation and for detailing failure points.

View All Submit An Event

Products

ENR Square Foot Costbook 2020

ENR Square Foot Costbook 2020

See More Products

Tweets by @ArchRecord

Architectural Record

AR December 2019 Cover

2019 December

In the December 2019 issue, Architectural Record reveals the winners of the annual Record Products contest.

View More Subscribe
  • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Survey And Sample
    • Editorial Calendar
  • Call for Entries
  • Subscribe
    • Subscribe
    • Renew
    • Create Account
    • Change Address
    • Pay My Bill
    • Free eNewsletters
    • Customer Care
  • Advertise
    • Architectural Record
    • Advertising Awards
  • Industry Jobs

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing