Leaving behind the Arizona desert, the clients wanted to build a home in their newly adopted city of Toronto with a mandate to capture and modulate sunlight, and to be as environmentally conscious as possible. The architect responded by composing the house around its particular Northern sun angles and solar energy. The design embraces the most poetic, strategic, environmental, and logical reading of light.

Set in a private garden, the pavilion design was inspired by Eastern philosophy of harmony with nature. It is used for sitting and dining, as well as workshops, concerts, and other activities of the Artists’ Cooperative. The pavilion’s lattice-like structure is made of cedar, with steel hardware and clear glazing. It allows layered views of the garden and sky, and frames the orbit of the moon. The roof structure precisely aligns to shade the sun at solstice in the hottest days of summer, but allows the sun to penetrate fully by equinox providing warmth in the cooler months of spring and fall.

Located in the plateau district of Montreal, Paul Raff Studio is currently working with Julia Bourke Architecture to renovate an existing plumbing warehouse from the late 1800’s. This adaptive/re-use project for the client, a film maker, implements a mixed-use renovation and addition to house a television studio/painting gallery/living loft as well as a 3rd story mezzanine addition with an outdoor roof terrace.

This project features: an angular glass garage wall, a sculptural curving stair which also acts as a light scoop, an addition with mechanized louvers, and a planted roof terrace. These highlights elevate the sense of heightened drama and juxtaposition between old and new and they deliver a high level of comfort and performance for living and working.

Kamala Bay Villas is a luxury housing development in Phuket overlooking the Adaman Sea. The site is a steeply sloped virgin jungle valley, rich with mature tropical trees, which opens onto beach front. To preserve the landform and the trees, car access is restricted to the high edge of the site, and the valley is spanned with a series of pedestrian foot-bridges. The villas are distributed along the bridges in small-footprint/low-impact buildings and connected down to the beach with a network of pathways on the ground. Entering the site along a foot-bridge, one actually walks amongst the tree canopy 20 meters above the ground. Using modest local materials and construction techniques, the villas are simple concrete and glass boxes wrapped on 4 sides with a bamboo screen. Their simple geometries, by juxtaposition, accentuate the dynamic landform and jungle.