This apartment on Queen Street West contains a continuing exploration of one of the realities of living in a dense urban environment: the need to move vertically. The vertical component to urban spaces has been largely ignored by treating it as a necessary evil and squeezing it down to take up as little real estate as possible. Here we used the stairs and the experience of moving vertically as an opportunity to connect the various levels which make up the entire space.

    The top apartment uses the stairs to stretch the living area up and onto the roof connecting the rooftop deck to the rest of the space and allowing natural light to be introduced into the middle of this infill building.

    The rear apartment uses a slot cut into the second floor to let diffuse north light penetrate to the interior of the ground floor and also allows better airflow and ventilation. Light and visual connections make the trips up and down less detached from the experience of the space as a whole.

Rear Apartment:

Top Apartment: