Urban Garden I

In Toronto's Roncesvalles neighbourhood, Urban Garden I adds almost no interior area and rebuilds the edges of the lot instead. At the street a single charcoal form solves privacy for the terrace, proportion against the brick house, and shelter for the entry. At the rear a raised deck makes two rooms of the yard, and the pergola over the dining area carries no roof, its canopy grown rather than built. Beyond it the garden reaches the lane not as a path laid across a yard but as a zone to be moved through, slowed by a drop from the deck and the moss-filled breaks underfoot.