2019-09-01 DESIGNLINES

(^54) Triple Take
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Additional
Content
THREE HOME EXTENSIONS THAT DEMONSTRATE
THE POWER OF EXPANSIVE THINKING
by ERIC MUTRIE
TOP Reigo & Bauer’s
trick for mitigating
the visual load of this
soaring add-on? Using
two-toned metal tiles.
BOTTOM Light pours
into the now double-
height dining room.
Backward
Progress
The overlapping morning routines of a Roncesvalles family meant
that someone always had to shower in their Victorian’s basement,
accessed via a scrawny staircase. Add to that an overburdened rear
entrance and a cramped upstairs bedroom, and it was time to call in
architects Reigo & Bauer, masters of flow.
Outside, a preserved portion of the original brick wall meets the
53-square-metre addition’s fresh cladding of metal tiles – black for
the first storey and white above. “By going two-tone, we soften the
structure’s verticality,” explains co-principal Merike Bauer.
Inside, an open-concept back mudroom built at grade creates a
new mid-level, with its sliding glazed door spotlighting a spacious
new basement staircase. Up a half-storey, the revamped dining
room now sits below a double-height ceiling, with a second-storey
window slanted for targeted illumination. Continue your ascent,
and a curved balcony upstairs sweeps past this angular corner en
route to an expanded back bedroom. The net result: every family
member’s day starts off right. REIGOANDBAUER.COM