House in Erin
Erin, Ontario
Ian MacDonald Architect Inc.
(Toronto, ON)
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This country retreat for two urban professionals is located only 45 minutes from downtown Toronto, in an area that is surrounded by suburban encroachment. The main design challenge was to create a strong connection to the land and to maintain this ten-acre site as a natural setting for the house.

The siting strategy was particularly important. The obvious location for the house was up on a hill overlooking the landscape, but this site would have been vulnerable to “view pollution” due to unpredictable suburban sprawl. Instead, the house was embedded in a tree row adjacent to the road. This decision minimized the length of the driveway and its environmental impact. It enabled the house to frame views of undulating hills and a wetland pond that had originally drawn the couple to the site. It also ensured that the sense of retreat and the views from the house would not be jeopardized by future development.

The house is modest and it sits lightly on the land. To optimize the limited budget, the design uses expressive materials that are well crafted and finely detailed, using a modern vocabulary of formal elements and spatial richness. The house is an environmentally responsive design that builds thoughtfully on an increasingly populated urban fringe, where ostentatious buildings often dominate the landscape in a wasteful and insensitive way.

Jury Comments:

The architectural qualities of this project owe much to the siting strategy, which is both pragmatic and poetic in the larger landscape conditions. The interior spaces benefit not only from the contained views to the pond and the hillside but also from the section that gently differentiates areas through light and space.

Brit Andresen,
(Australia)
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Simplicity of means results in a comfortable yet rich living space. Emphasis is placed on how south light falls into the house, how views are framed and how public rooms connect with the site, rather than on elaborate detailing. This gives the house a rural sensibility appropriate to its location.

Stephen Teeple, FRAIC
(Ontario)
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