Studio Gang has designed a honeycomb-shaped residential building, titled One Delisle that offers residents an all-year-round outdoor patio overlooking Toronto, Canada. The project is designed as a windbreaker inspired by a German beach chair known as the Strandkorb. The tower will include up to 47 floors, with each distinct penthouse spanning one-third or one-half of the 16-sided building, and will offer residents hotel-style amenities.
For this project, the architecture studio studied dense urban areas around the world and how wind can be challenging while creating high rise neighborhoods, especially when residents are looking for residences with habitable and useable outdoor balconies, terraces, and patios. The structure shields balconies from wind and snow from the sides and top, making the outdoor spaces accessible during the winter as well.
For One Delisle’s penthouses, we wanted to connect residents to nature and offer beautiful views of the city. To do so, our design reinterprets high-rise architectural elements, such as balconies and roof gardens, into the urban equivalent of a front porch or back yard—social spaces that occur more naturally when living closer to the ground. These terraces and balconies are protected from rain, wind, and snow, creating microclimates that extend the seasons of use beyond summer. -- Margaret Cavenagh, Design Principal of Interior Architecture at Studio Gang.
The penthouses' interiors boast natural stone fireplaces and a refined dining room with glass-enclosed wine cabinets. The kitchens were designed as the house's focal point, surrounded by open floorplans and a custom, pill-shaped island designed by the architecture firm. Natural stone countertops were used to bring warmth and texture to the space, paired with lacquer-finished cabinetry.
The project is the Chicago-based architecture firm's first ever project in Canada, and is set to become an architectural landmark in the Canadian city created by Slate Asset Management. Mid 2021, Studio Gang and The Community Builders won the City of Chicago’s C40 Reinventing Cities, a competition that seeks to “transform underutilized sites or buildings into beacons of sustainability and resilience and act as a showcase for future zero-carbon urban developments”. The winning proposal will create 207 residences for the downtown workforce earning as little as minimum wage, revitalize Pritzker Park, and add community spaces and amenities to the Chicago Loop.
