This corner-lot residence has two ‘front doors’: the original main entrance faces onto a side street, while the newer faces the street address. PLANT’s first phase of work was a major renovation and expansion of the house itself Airdrie Road Residence. In the second phase, we redesigned the large back garden and the street frontage gardens to integrate the reorganized and renovated house with the site.

Optimizing views from the new sunroom and new master-bedroom deck above it, the redesigned rear garden retains the structure of the relatively formal, pre-renovation landscape, but takes it in a naturalized direction. Shrubs, grasses, and perennials such as globe thistles and hydrangeas provide year-round interest. Curved planting beds swirl around the flagstone-strewn lawn at the centre and extend into the corners, softening the rectilinearity of the enclosing fence. The new outdoor spaces include a deck and dining patio close to the house, bordering the new sunroom, and seating nooks at the back of the garden.

The curving plant beds continue from the backyard to the front: Curvilinear lines of planting wrap around the front garden corner to connect the more formal, original main entry with the newer – and now primary – entry to the addition. The landscape maintains a stately address for the original main entrance, while bestowing ‘front door’ axial prominence on the newer entry. Shade-tolerant evergreen shrubs and grasses are key elements in the front garden’s all-seasons palette of soft, contrasting textures.