A City Home Grows Without Gobbling Up its Garden
The Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood is populated with charming but dated homes like the Hotel-de-Ville residence. To add extra room, architecture firm Microclimat Architecture plotted a T-shaped extension in the backyard. The architects' advance was blocked by a poplar tree, around which they designed a skinny glass volume topped with a cantilevered mezzanine.
Determined not to destroy the home's limited connection to nature, Microclimat extended the addition only as far as a mature poplar tree in the rear garden. The cantilevered mezzanine is wedged between its trunk and boughs.
The expansion creates a narrow intermediary space between the yard and existing home. This sliver contains a light steel staircase and two new sun rooms for reading.
The mezzanine houses the new master bedroom, which juts out into the embrace of the poplar tree.
A new terrace, accessible from the private quarters, reshuffles outdoor space lost during construction onto the roof.
Published
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