House 95 | Izen Architecture Inc.

The design of House 95 is the epitome of effortless luxury, infused with weightlessness, calm and ease. The finished home features three bedrooms, with 2,000 square feet above grade, a 1,000 square foot finished basement, and a 500 square foot sub basement featuring a theatre and bar. The use of natural materials, a warm palette, beautifully concealed functional design and an innovative application of frameless windows resulted in a home that feels like a rural oasis. Everything is intentional, with no detail left untouched.
 
A key part of Izen Architecture’s approach was to infuse the interiors with as much natural sunshine as possible and showcase the vibrant surrounding tree canopy. This was accomplished with Toronto's first application of frameless windows, imparting a treehouse vibe throughout the space. This was a significant feat of engineering and collaboration, as no one locally had installed these windows before.
 
The design of the frameless windows minimizes the casings around the glass, resulting in a near-perfect sense that the interiors flow unimpeded to outside. A particularly sublime effect is found around the dining room banquette. A wall of windows wraps a corner, creating an unobstructed view of the outdoors, making the space feel more like an exterior porch.
 
To complement the light, airy treehouse sensibility, we used white oak engineered hardwood flooring on the ceiling and polished concrete floors, heated from within, to amplify natural light. Receded black marble baseboards make walls appear to float throughout the home.
 
The main staircase features origami-thin, folding planes of white oak that appear to float from floor to floor, but are supported by heavy steel framing hidden within the walls. Glass rails are nestled within sleek black steel channels, with similar black steel channels as hand-grips, reinforcing the effortless design. 
 
The same sense of weightlessness can be found in the home's exterior. The lower portion of the house is wrapped in seamless, perfectly flush Neolith porcelain panels (another feat of collaboration), while the upper floors are clad in a heavier Indiana limestone and cantilevered over the bottom portion. The home seems to defy gravity and imparts a sense of ease and airiness from the moment you see it. 
 
The exterior features another material innovation: the porcelain panels have been coated with an environmentally-friendly photocatalytic surface treatment that is self cleaning and antimicrobial when it interacts with sunlight - it helps to purify the air around it, as well as helping to lengthen the life of the material.
 

Status: Completed 2019

Location: Toronto, ON

Size: 3,500 sf

Type: Single-Family Home

Team: Roxane Bejjany, Brenda Izen, Abida Banu

Photography: Scott Norsworthy https://scottnorsworthy.com/