Karen White, David MacNaughtan, and their sons, Griffin and Finlay, hang out on the front deckof their narrow home in Toronto’s leafy Roncesvalles neighborhood. A narrow modernist composition of glass panes and purple brick, the house slips like a bookmark between two older buildings, a bright three-story abode on a lot narrower than most suburban driveways. Photo by Dean Kaufman. Read more about the small house here.

“Sustainability is very important to us,” lead architect Heather Dubbeldam says. “It is easy to design with passive systems, to use passive sustainable principles to influence the design and layout of the house.” Her team reduced the need for air conditioning and artificial lighting through carefully positioned doors and windows that draw in natural light and breeze. New insulation, low-flow plumbing fixtures, and low-energy lighting also minimize the homeowners’ dependence on utilities.

The architects created the illusion of more space by opening up the floor plan, repositioning the staircase and introducing sight lines to the large windows on the south side. Recurring black accents—from the dining room’s Serge Mouille light fixture to its tall bookcases—contrast the brightness of the crisp white walls. Walnut floors and lighter wood furniture like the Klaus Willhelm table and Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs cozy up the home, while colorful objects animate it. “We strongly believe that people do not need more space, they just need better-designed space,” Dubbeldam says.

The majority of windows are on the south facade to optimize solar gain.

22 Grange Avenue-Home to Toronto artist Charles Pachter and rumoured to be divided into three parts: living space, studio space, and gallery space. Designed by Toronto architects Teeple Architects.

“I love the master bedroom, with the geometry of the white-painted, angled roof lines and the varying shadows that this creates,” Dubbeldam says. The naturally lit space features built-in shelves and a floating desk that overlooks the street below through a tiny window. An aluminum Eames task chair and a Serge Mouille wall light adorn the space.

123 Heath Street W-This is an area where Imperial Oil's headquarters used to be, and there are remnants of the 60's 'high life' still in the neighborhood.

73 Oriole Road

1084 Deta Road in Longbranch, West Toronto

50 Heath Street W-Constructed in 1923, the McNamara House is a rare example of the Prairie School of architecture in Toronto.

387 & 389 Crawford Street

267 Inglewood Drive

69 Lawton Blvd.

60 Woodlawn Avenue

Active systems, in addition to thoughtful orientation and structural planning, help the structure become ultra efficient. The primary heating source throughout the house is radiant flooring connected to a geothermal system. Tedesco specified the Uponor Climate Control Network to operate the systems. "Every heating zone can be scheduled for setback," he says. "Then, through the communication and coordination of zone operation from main control panel that monitors the entire system, equipment and zones are cycled in harmony. The entire climate control system including the geothermal, ERV, A/C, and heat pumps is balanced to maintain optimal performance and occupant comfort. The Lutron Maestro lighting control, home entertainment, and security system can all be monitored and controlled remotely through a web-based program provided by the equipment supplier. The entire system has wireless access points throughout the house to ensure conductivity." The media room sofas are Ikea's Karlstad model, the rug is by Bev Hisey Textile Design, and the pendant is the Caprice by Viso.

Tedesco's father was a precision machinist and his uncles worked as welders and carpentry framers. As a tribute to his family's history, Tedesco made the blackened-steel-and-wood staircase a focal point—it can be seen from nearly every room in the house.

The team carried the concept of contrast through the exterior, juxtaposing the home’s 125-year-old red brick façade with vertical, black-stained cedar cladding at the back. “We wanted to celebrate the old alongside the new,” Dubbeldam says. Since the house is so well insulated, the extra heat that dark exteriors typically draw doesn’t penetrate beyond the boards’ surface.

The living room is five steps down from the kitchen and office space and features textured black slate tile from Olympia Tile, Voyage Immobile sofas with Farniente collection upholstery (a wedding present from Flanders’s mother) by Roche Bobois, and a rug from Turkmenistan the couple picked up in Jerusalem. The sliding glass doors are by Loewen and the glazing above is by Inline Fiberglass. Sawatzky relied on Wayne Arsenault for the custom millwork and carpentry.

Composed of 220 aluminum "light shelves," the solar reflector screen is the focal point of the front façade. The home takes advantage of its Southern exposure, using the reflector screen to funnel sunlight and warmth deep into the interior space.

A deck is located off the dining area.

“The walnut unit between the kitchen and dining room ties into the fumed oak floor,” Dubbeldam says. “The rest of the materials in the house—glass, marble, stone—were selected to offset the wood.”

The architects knocked out the kitchen’s back wall, where a single window had formerly let in a miniscule amount of light, and installed sliding glass doors instead. A soothing charcoal accent wall anchors the bright white cabinetry and Corian countertops, while pendant lights by Alvar Aalto hang above an oak island. The fixtures are from KWC, Dornbracht, and Catalano.

The home’s emphasis on light and linearity is evident even from the street, where carefully placed windows and a combination of stained cedar and Eternit cement-fiber panels create a stunning silhouette.

The structure has a 60/40 ratio of walls to windows, a figure that was achieved through computer modeling. "This ratio balances the amount of high R-value solid wall to glazing to create an overall building envelope for optimum thermal performance," Tedesco says. "This ratio was fine-tuned and tested using computer modeling that incorporated site-specific information such as building orientation, and the surrounding infrastructure such as neighboring houses and trees. The end result was an envelope design and window placement strategy that optimizes seasonal daylight cycles, maximizes solar gains in the winter, increases the level of interior natural daylighting, and considers views of the surrounding neighborhood." Because the residents are sensitive to noise, the walls feature extra insulaton, especially in the bedrooms and media rooms.

While the house is spread over two stories, Tedesco alotted space for an elevator, should the residents have mobility issues down the line. The pendants are Spillray by Axo and the windows are Loewen.

Toronto designer Julia Knezic built this house for her own family in a narrow lot next to her mom's house. Photo by Sean Galbraith. Check out the interiors here.

The kitchen also displays a reliance on natural materials and soft colors. For the wine storage area, Roundabout Studio used reclaimed wood from the original building. The new dining room table also utilizes repurposed studs salvaged from the building’s demolition. The kitchen stools are from Avenue Road, the dining room table is custom, and the pendant light is from Dark Tools.

“The original stairs were not lined up vertically, which took up much of the internal space,” Dubbeldam explains. The architect replaced them with black walnut wood risers that seem to float from the basement to the third floor, allowing light to spill into the house’s once-dark interior.

The outdoor deck is made from ipe. The wood was selected to complement the fumed oak flooring inside the house. “We carried the level of design detail throughout [the property] because we wanted the exterior to feel like an extension of the living space, especially for entertaining, but also as a connection to the coach house,” Dubbeldam says.

The flooring throughout the interior is maple. A vintage Ercol sofa and arm chair, Eclipse coffee table by Stua, Wide Wale rug by Bev Hisey Textile Design, and Moon floor lamp by Estiluz Spain furnish the living room. "Extensive planning went into ‘aging in place’ forecasting a host of different scenarios about what that meant physically and psychologically," architect Alex Tedesco says. "We did ‘day in the life’ modeling to understand all the various barrier free requirements that might arise."

Two Harry Bertoia-designed chairs sit on the main third story deck, which includes a hidden green roof that absorbs rainwater, cools the upper floors, and purifies the air. “It’s a nice little oasis on the roof, with plants that bloom at different times of year. The owners love spending time up there,” Dubbeldam says.

Directly at the top of the stairs on the third story, oversized sliding glass doors lead out to a sunny roof deck. To the left, an ensuite bathroom is furnished with Duravit and Wetstyle fixtures. “It has tiny white tumbled marble mosaic tiles, which are very soft underfoot,” Dubbeldam says.

A Japanese hinoki bowl and stool from Mjölk sit next to a custom hinoki bathtub by Bartok Design in the tub room.

A third-floor courtyard stands in for a backyard and gives Elodie, the couple’s two-year-old daughter, a place to play outdoors. A Hunting chair by Børge Mogensen shares the space with a child’s chair by Tomii Takashi and a vintage Danish coffee table.

The house responds to its site. "The design was directly influenced by two mature, century-old magnolia trees in the front and a Japanese maple in the rear," Tedesco says. "The location of widows and main program spaces, such as the living room and master bedroom, were strategically placed to take full advantage of views of these trees. Because the trees are fully visible from the interior, seasons and the trees' yearly blooming cycles play a significant role in daily life—they're not just landscape elements. The window sizes and their locations were coordinated with the existing trees to take advantage of passive solar shading in the summer and solar gain in the winter months when the trees do not have foliage."

Waechter Architecture reimagined a traditional gabled home in southeast Portland without significantly altering the original building. A simple coat of red paint abstracts the century-old structure, creating a residential work of art.