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Cogs
Cogs
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Cogs
Firm
Type
STATUS
Concept
SIZE
3000 sqft - 5000 sqft
BUDGET
Undisclosed
Originally a neighbourhood grocer with apartments above, and most recently a bicycle repair shop, Cogs is a building that remains exposed and known to its east Toronto community. The new owners prefer to continue its legacy by maintaining its shell and patina – and importantly its place as a shared community resource. The design challenge – when faced with adding a modern dwelling for a growing family of 5 – was to create a mixed-use building that ties old and new together in harmony.
Unlike many lots on busy downtown streets, Cogs lot is unusual, with the long side of the building against a busy commercial side and its narrow end facing a residential side street. It therefore enjoys more of a presence to transit, traffic, and passers-by than most of the city’s typical commercial fabric. The new Cogs provides a private residential entrance at one end of the building and a proper retail entrance at the street corner, so that both private and public tenants can enjoy a total discreet autonomy.
The treatment of the building explores the use of expanded metal sheets as a skin that act as a privacy screen in front of windows and guards. The rippled porous metal rainscreen provides privacy from the street yet allows views and dappled southern sunlight in the interior spaces. At night the building transforms glistening with interior forms. At its mid section the building opens to an unexpected exterior garden space that offers a green canyon form enjoyed from the interior spaces that surround it. The project celebrates private gardens on many levels including a walled sun garden hidden by the original brick walls of the old shell. From the private living room, the patio opens, where windows once were, now are open air apertures creating an inner-city oasis.
Unlike many lots on busy downtown streets, Cogs lot is unusual, with the long side of the building against a busy commercial side and its narrow end facing a residential side street. It therefore enjoys more of a presence to transit, traffic, and passers-by than most of the city’s typical commercial fabric. The new Cogs provides a private residential entrance at one end of the building and a proper retail entrance at the street corner, so that both private and public tenants can enjoy a total discreet autonomy.
The treatment of the building explores the use of expanded metal sheets as a skin that act as a privacy screen in front of windows and guards. The rippled porous metal rainscreen provides privacy from the street yet allows views and dappled southern sunlight in the interior spaces. At night the building transforms glistening with interior forms. At its mid section the building opens to an unexpected exterior garden space that offers a green canyon form enjoyed from the interior spaces that surround it. The project celebrates private gardens on many levels including a walled sun garden hidden by the original brick walls of the old shell. From the private living room, the patio opens, where windows once were, now are open air apertures creating an inner-city oasis.
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