Case Study: Arthur Residence by 5468796 Architecture

On the Curve

Those perimeter walls set up a labyrinthian entry sequence that pulls you from the street along the south side of the house. Turning left takes you through a gap between walls to a tall, orange front door, built by the owner. On this floor, the living room, dining room, and kitchen are a series of staggered concrete boxes that flow from one space to another and respond to the placement of courtyards. The living/dining area is bracketed by two glass walls. One overlooks the sunken atrium outside the basement apartment on the north. The other opens to a courtyard slotted in on the south. “They are carefully curated to create this back-and-forth experience between the inside and outside of the house,” says Sasa. 

Although the interior leads the eye outward, this is an introverted house that reveals itself in layers. The double-height living/dining room ceiling pushes up into a theatrical plastered vault, formed by second-story walls that bend inward. “As we got an understanding of the second floor, the idea of a double-height living space emerged, with a special light and ceiling quality,” Sasa says. “We thought it was a remarkable way of connecting the upstairs and downstairs and understanding the geometry that happens above your head.” Next to the kitchen is a bathroom and stairway that open to the garage on the east. Behind it, a double-height carport is extruded from the second-floor roof form, tall enough to accommodate a storage container atop a van. From there, a narrow corridor between the house and rear perimeter wall leads to stairs down to the sunken garden and apartment entrance.

Geometries on the wood-framed second floor took shape with the owners’ ideas about how they wanted to live. The living room’s vaulted ceiling separates the primary suite above the kitchen from the guest suite/office above the foyer, each with its own staircase. Walls in both suites bend inward “like curtains drawing in the breeze,” creating curved slits inset with tall, triangular windows that admit diffused daylight. The right-angled triangular voids contain operable windows, all crafted by the homeowner. “As we were playing with things, we cut pieces of paper with scissors and bent them, which provided us with a geometry we could work with throughout,” Sasa says. “The wood-framed windows are high and provide views to the neighborhoods and trees. Tapping into the clients’ industriousness enabled us to propose something highly unusual as we learned what they can do.” A curve in one of the walls allows passage from the primary suite to a terrace atop the garage.

Ship Shape

If the upstairs plaster walls create soft, cloud-like spaces, the main level feels firmly grounded with its thermal concrete floors and walls. Given the region’s aggressive freeze-and-thaw cycles, insulation was sandwiched between the 8-inch-thick inner structural layer and a 3-inch-thick outer layer. “To pour such a thick layer of concrete and get it to look smooth, we needed to use a sandier type of concrete that would fill all the cracks and allow a sharp edge on the corners,” says builder Ted Geddert, founder of Holz Constructors. The minimalist snap ties used for the forms have an adjustable thread that fits through the holes, handy for hanging art. 

Whereas the concrete was poured on site, Holz built the second story’s floor, walls, and roof structure in their shop in Winnipeg before shipping it to Regina, six hours away. The 14-foot-tall, 2-by-6 framed walls incorporated openings for the triangular windows, which the homeowner built in his shop. “To build the curved walls was challenging,” Ted says. “The first time the architect explained the idea, he took a piece of paper and ripped it in half; one side would bend and look like a sail bending in the wind. From the mockup, we built the second level in our prefab shop and then disassembled it because we needed to make sure all the dimensions worked. Plywood sheathing was built over the framing in our shop and then stuccoed on the site.” He adds: “It was important that everything lined up, which is hard to do when you’re dealing with concrete and stucco, framing and bending, getting all those things to blend into the lines they were imagining.”

As was the plan, light drops down from the second floor into the pristine vault of the living and dining room. In addition to the second-story windows, the owner executed all the fine woodworking details, including the kitchen cabinetry. “The clients had immaculate taste and ability, and we allowed them to express what they wanted in the house,” Sasa says. “We let him fly with the front door, including picking the color.”

This unusual collaboration—between architect and builder, and architect and client—sparked inventiveness and surprise. Confining yet open, the house has a sense of repose and peace that was important to the owners’ lives. And it’s become a conversation piece—in a good way. “They tell us that people want to come in and are surprised by the light and how livable the house is, though it doesn’t necessarily communicate that,” Sasa says. “The clients love taking people for a tour and having that conversation.”