Humber Home

Humber Home is a 325 square metre (3,500 sq ft) multi-generational house in the North York area of north Toronto, designed by Studio JCI to support three generations under one roof: a retired couple, their adult children, and grandparents.

From the street, a pitched roof responds to the neighbourhood vernacular while a deep, dramatic brick tone sets the house apart from the muted local palette. The material selection is deliberately restrained, letting well-crafted detail and texture variation carry the design. Warm wood accents play against the cool brick, a pairing carried from the exterior through to the interior, and vertical oak battens conceal functional elements such as the front-facing garage door and the passage linking the living room to the artist's studio.

Behind the front façade sits a second-floor courtyard that opens a sequence of light-filled, interconnected spaces at the centre of the home. It gives the grandparents' suite a private outdoor room and draws daylight down into a central atrium above the communal kitchen. Planning balances each family member's privacy with the benefits of living together, and an elevator was included from the outset so that every level stays accessible as the household's senior members age in place.

Dedicated private rooms answer individual needs, including an artist's studio, a media room and a home office. The open-plan communal spaces run from the front of the house through to the back at grade, opening onto a generous backyard that faces the natural landscape of the Humber Ravine. The garden is organised into zones for cooking, covered dining, gardening and urban farming, while a low wall at the front shelters the street-facing windows and creates a porch-like space for the family to gather and meet the neighbourhood.

Architect: Studio JCI (Jaegap Chung, prime consultant). Project manager and builder: Porcobuild Inc. Photography: Michael Muraz.