One and a Half

This project was named an Merit winner in the 69th Annual Progressive Architecture Awards, and was featured in the March 2022 issue of ARCHITECT.

“Spatially, it was rich, it didn’t fall into the traps of over expression. It's disciplinary in some way, in the way it deals with geometry and the spacial nuances that came about.” — Juror Kutan Ayata

A provocative statement on the contemporary domestic scene, One and a Half is a modestly scaled addition to a free-standing home in Toronto that tackles a range of hot-button issues including the COVID-19 crisis and the culture of work. Designed by hometown firm Ja Architecture Studio for the partners’ own use, the new structure is not a true extension of the existing house but rather a discrete outbuilding linked to its predecessor via an underground passage, a variety of accessory dwelling made possible by a recent change in Toronto’s municipal building code. In a radical break from the gabled building they began with, the architects gave their new extension a formal profile that all but defies description—L-shaped in elevation, One and a Half rises from a horizontal base to a two-story, tower-like mid-rise, the envelope stretched taut over the irregular spaces within. Those spaces, and their irregularities, signal the programmatic gambit at the heart of the project: With provisions for sleeping, working, and lounging, the amorphous interior scheme makes no firm distinction between any of these activities, allowing them to flow over and through each other, provoking an open-ended inquiry into life, work, and the connections between.

PROJECT CREDITS
Project: One and a Half, Toronto
Client/Owner: Behnaz Assadi and Nima Javidi
Architects: Ja Architecture Studio. Nima Javidi OAA, Behnaz Assadi, Kyle O’Brien, Kaveh Taherizadeh
Mechanical Engineer: SustainGlobe
Structural Engineer: Moses Structural Engineers
Electrical Engineer: SustainGlobe
Landscape Architect: Behnaz Assadi, (Ja Architecture Studio)
Size: 520 square feet
Cost: $250,000 CAD