SARSEN HOUSE

Located in downtown Toronto’s prestigious and historic Rathnelly neighbourhood, the Sarsen House sits on a three way intersection directly at the entrance to this exclusive and proud part of the city. Both embracing and rejecting the performative placement of its site, this house hides the interior private life of its inhabitants: a radical sculptor and quiet experimental urban farmer. The interior programming is gradated with entertaining and business areas at the front, and intimate private spaces located further back and deeper in the site, until finally emerging in the embrace of the below-grade garden -- a personal enclave embedded in a busy city. Despite cloaking interior proceedings, the house stands as a stark sculptural landmark against the neighbourhood. Large concrete panels serve as curtains, leaning against one another, and draping the programming within. The Sarsen House’s austerity embodies the intersections of the lives within and tensions in-between.