The Bézier Curve House began as the initiative of custom-home builder Farhad Kazmian, owner of Abond Homes, to replace his family’s home in Toronto’s Lawrence Park neighbourhood. His desire was a family home that would also serve as a showpiece for his business. In particular, Kazmian wanted a house that would be the antithesis of the boxy fishbowl. Searching for a “contemporary house with sloped roof,” he discovered Tania Bortolotto and her studio’s spirited and sculptural style. Bortolotto’s starting point for the design was the original house’s atypical front courtyard consisting of a lushly landscaped oasis with a lap pool.
1 | Creativity
The Bézier Curve House employs digital technology, until recently relegated to the design of public buildings, to realize a contemporary home that is neither boxy nor glassy. Using Grasshopper, the architects conceived of a spectacular roofline in the form of a Bézier curve – a three-dimensional sweep that elegantly hugs the house’s front yard pool and nods to traditional styles of its gable-roofed neighbours in a fluid and harmonious motion. Constructed using standard materials and traditional techniques, the house was completed at a comparable cost to other contemporary homes, thereby paving the way for houses with more original and expressive forms.
2 | Context
The resulting Bézier Curve House simultaneously stands with and apart from its neo-classical neighbours. The dramatically sloped roofline elegantly mediates between modern and traditional styles. Parametric modelling enabled Bortolotto to design the entire home around the roof’s sweeping curve, and to respond, with uncommon sensitivity, to the house’s unique site conditions.
Clad with hand-laid, diamond-shaped zinc shingles, the material simultaneously recalls a shimmering reptilian body while also drawing connections with neighbouring slate roofs. In the valley above the doorway, a series of eye-catching, twisted zinc snow guards form a protective barrier and highlight the dip in the roof.
3 | Sustainability
The walls of the A-frame window extend beyond the face of the glazing and act as a bris soleil, deflecting sunlight and reducing heat gain within the building. Three
separate high-efficiency HVAC systems were installed in select zones of the house to provide climate control and increased energy-efficient temperature management of areas for day and night usage. As well as hydronic in-floor heating throughout the basement, all washrooms and points on entry were installed, taking advantage of the thermal mass of the concrete slab and providing more efficient heating solutions over forced air.
4 | Legacy
The cathedral-like roof structure was constructed using steel ridge beams, tipping to an outrigged A-frame steel structure, and infilled with conventional timber joists that fan out to form a curve. Once the steel was up, the carpenters strap-pulled an LVL to bow and create a smooth ridge curve. In sum, the house is a testament to thoughtful design and the aspirations of a capable builder that aims to give specialist design tools a wider audience. This process demonstrated that a complex geometric design could be achieved on a residential scale given the right team. OD