The clients asked Montreal-based architect Henri Cleinge to renovate a 200-year-old stone house in Dorval, Quebec to accommodate an extended family of four generations.

A Toronto family of five wanted to replace their 800-square-foot, poorly insulated, tin-roof cabin dating to the 1950s with a four-season house to accommodate extended family and guests.

In designing a house for a family of five at the Kicking Horse ski resort in Golden, British Columbia, architect Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ) wanted to make the most of views while preserving privacy on a tight site.

After purchasing a picturesque property on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Landscape Architect Nancy Krieg commissioned a permanent dwelling by Norwegian firm Saunders Architecture.

“On the first day on the project, we decided to fly it off a cliff,” says Brian MacKay-Lyons, describing the simple wood and steel–frame residence his firm designed. 

Iconic designs don't always make good places. Photogenic buildings that assert themselves as individual landmarks may ignore their context and fail to enhance the public realm.

One of the fastest-growing places in North America, Vaughan, 14 miles north of Toronto, has morphed from a rural township of 16,000 people in 1960 to a sprawling suburb of 288,000 today.

Most architects say they start each project with a blank slate.