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JOHN BROWN is the editor of theslowhome.com and the founder of the Slow Home Movement. He is a registered architect, real estate broker and Professor of Architecture at the University of Calgary.
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One Step Ahead
Evergreen Gardens
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Kitchen
View To Window Bench
Upper Stair and Screen Detail
Existing Large Maple
Ground Floor and Site Plan
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Project
Residence at 6 Evergreen Gardens
Toronto Ontario Canada
Area: 2715 sf
Occupancy: October 2006
Architect/Design
Drew Mandel / Drew Mandel Design
19 Duncan Street, Suite 405
Toronto Ontario Canada M5H 3H1
416 260 8373
info@drewmandeldesign.com
Consulting Team
Architect/Design: Drew Mandel Design
Structural: Blackwell Bowick Partnership
Mechanical: Toews Engineering Inc.
Builder: T. Fijalkowski & Associates
The projects included in this submission share a common approach and an interest in meaningful place making. The basic notions of movement, materials and access to light are employed through a modern vocabulary, in an idiosyncratic manner, in order to create a legible armature through which to engage a site.
Rather than assembling a group of coded associations equaling “house”, these projects wish to refocus the perception of the site. At times the architecture is an armature through which to engage or highlight the context and other times it creates its own interior landscape. There is an attempt to link architectural moments to the visceral feelings encountered in various landscapes or geographic types: a bridge, a hilltop, the open sky, under a tree.
Sometimes the intent is mostly an attempt to stay out of the way. The Marlborough house lights up when lightening flashes through the large central light well; the Evergreen house endeavors to allow the owners to feel as though they are sitting under the big tree on the front lawn; the ground floor of the Heathdale ravine house steps down to follow the sloping site.
Each project is an attempt at meaningful place making; a connection to the site and the sky, by responding to the peculiarities of the client, the landscape and the neighborhood, in order to derive the potential from an underused space.
Drew Mandel
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We believe that our homes and neighborhoods should be healthy, vibrant places that uplift the spirit and gracefully fit our needs. We call for an end to poor construction, bad design, misleading marketing, unfair lending practices and environmental neglect in the housing industry. We acknowledge our collective responsibility to create CLOSE, SIMPLE, LIGHT places to live that leave a positive legacy for future generations.
provides design focused information that homeowners can use to improve the quality of how and where they live. It takes its name from the slow food movement which arose as a reaction to the processed food industry. The sprawl of cookie cutter housing that surrounds us is like fast food - standardized, homogenous, and wasteful. It contributes to a too fast life that is bad for us, our cities, and the environment. In the same way that slow food raises awareness of the food we eat and how these choices affect our lives, Slow Home empowers you to take more control of your home and improve the quality of how you live while reducing your environmental impact and futureproofing the long term investment value of your home.
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