It’s difficult to imagine now, but there was a time when it was a given that multiple generations of a family would live together, whether out of cultural tradition or to find financial efficiencies. While it’s not unheard of today, the trend in the post-war era steadily shifted towards individuals moving out of the family home when they married or became (at least somewhat) financially independent. Uni-generational living would continue until they aged, passed away or could no longer look after themselves. But now, the pendulum seems to be swinging back. Rapid home price inflation, lack of housing supply and a renewed interest in aging in place have rekindled Canadians’ affection for multi-generational homes.

The most effective multi-generational residences are those that are carefully crafted to suit the needs of each family member, but without compromising architectural aesthetics, function or flow. So often, homes are renovated to create or free space with little consideration for design coherence. Adding a wing or erecting walls to create a new space for an aging parent, for example, may address an immediate need. But ad hoc renovations often make a home less, not more, welcoming. Expediting the addition of a basement bedroom or apartment is practical, yet may do little to enhance the long-term health and well-being of the person, couple or family that occupies it, thereby compromising design ambitions and the potential of the home to enhance its residents’ wellness.

Creating a truly functional multi-generational family home requires deft experience and expertise. It is as much an art form as creating a custom home itself, but with a distinct attention to detail that elevates spaces and creates opportunities for various generations of a family to thrive. The design process is one of discovery that requires learning about a family and how it interacts, intersects and the moments of solitude required to maintain harmony as family members’ interests and needs grow and evolve.

How to design a multi-generational custom home

There are myriad configurations and possibilities to consider when imagining your multi-generational custom home. And the financial incentives to start the process are more attractive than ever now that the federal government’s new Multigenerational Home Renovation Tax Credit is available. The benefit offers as much as $7,500 (or 15 per cent of as much as $50,000 in building costs) for the construction of a suite or extension of a home intended to house a family member. The addition must include a kitchen, bedroom, washroom and private entrance.

Incentives aside, the design conversation ultimately starts with the higher-level details. Which family members will be sharing the space? What are their ages, how do they live, what are their aspirations? Do they require separate quarters for sleep or reflection? What features could enhance the home’s livability? Many families are now choosing to situate at least one bedroom on the ground level, or to install or rough-in elevators if they plan to open their home to aging parents, or simply to age in place themselves. Is your family a boisterous one that enjoys spending as much time together as possible? Will you share interactions in a family room or kitchen? These are just a handful of the questions that our custom home design team includes in the discovery process.

From there, we consider the design options. Some families look at their living situation and opt for a standalone relative suite. With the recent introduction in Ontario of Bill 23, constructing outbuildings on a property or expanding homes should be easier and require less time for permit approvals. Sweeping changes introduced in the legislation should expedite the construction process and help you realize your multi-generational custom home vision faster.

Others may choose to design a home with separate wings and shared common spaces. A wonderful example of this approach is the Dusk Home. When Canadian singer Matt Dusk and his wife Julita Borko set out to build a forever home for their family, one that would also play host to Dusk’s brother and mother, our design team worked with the couple to account for a range of lifestyle factors. That included addressing their desire to construct a residence in David Small Designs’ signature Natural Modern style. The three-level, 6,000 sq. ft. Dusk Home—built by Rossini Homes with interior design by Fohr Design Studio—features open concept living areas and is flooded throughout the day with natural light.

To provide privacy for his mother and brother, Dusk and Borko opted for a design that features several suite-like rooms. Large bedrooms with well-appointed en suite washrooms and ample walk-in closets offer a relaxing escape from the bustle of family time. A soaring two-storey great room and open hallways keep the flow open and offer opportunities for interaction and communication, just as they create serene pathways for finding peace and quiet. Rooms at the back of the home connect to balconies to enhance connections to the outdoors, while courtyards at the side of the house allow light to flow in and offer family members private opportunities to enjoy the meticulously landscaped property.

The home is a case study in using clever and efficient architectural design to comfortably accommodate multiple generations of a family. It’s a prime example of what can be achieved when creating a residence that allows family members of all ages to thrive.

The David Small Design Team

Contact a member of our team today to learn more about our custom home design process.

The most important honour for an architectural design firm specializing in custom homes is to watch our clients fall in love with a new space for the first time. To know that we can play a key role in creating homes where families can live, grow, and thrive is beyond satisfying—it’s what drives us to create new and inspired designs.

Over the years, we’ve been grateful to have our work (either standalone, or in collaboration with our industry partners) acknowledged by a range of publications and industry organizations for design excellence and innovation. We’re very proud of this latest accolade for a home we’ve dubbed Contemporary Living, winner of the BILD TO Renovation & Custom Homes Awards 2022 for Best Custom Home over $2 million. Designed by our team and constructed by Profile Custom Homes, this modern residence is an open-concept homage to the most appealing features of contemporary living.

Achieving clean lines, while building unmistakable connections between outdoors and in, were two of the clients’ clearest project directives. They wanted to embrace the very best of modernity, while ensuring that David Small Designs’ Natural Modern ethos shone through every aspect of the interior and exterior spaces. Natural Modern is inspired by organic architecture, a school defined and perfected by iconic 20th century architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It draws on a home’s surrounding environment to influence all aspects of interior and architectural design. As such, it strives to ensure that custom homes are indelibly connected to the communities where they’re located, rather than standing apart, as can often be the case when design orthodoxy trumps environmental inclusiveness.

At 5,700 sq. ft. and completed in 2020, Contemporary Living was designed for a family of five that enjoys entertaining friends and family. They wanted an organized space, filled with light, and with ample room to live and thrive. In the end, the home makes a definitive statement about their goals and aspirations, while also being suitably warm and inviting. Ensuring the home nestled in snuggly with its neighbours—a community of largely traditional Greater Toronto Area dwellings—took extra thought and care.

Doing so meant tapping various architectural design tools and techniques, including the inclusion of a subtle roofline that played with variations in pitch to downplay the overall height of the building. Doing so added a sense of whimsy and dynamism that can be absent in some flat-topped modern homes. Natural stone and wood were incorporated as exterior elements to build strong connections to the natural elements of the adjacent landscape. That feeling of warmth and material familiarity helped to integrate Contemporary Living with its surroundings.

At the same time, our signature use of double height windows—to allow as much natural light as possible into the space—had the potential to create challenges in such a densely-fitted neighbourhood. To retain privacy, a distinctive stone landscape wall was constructed to limit sightlines into the main living space from adjacent sidewalks. Natural light can still readily find its way in, but the family can enjoy their time together without visual intrusion.

Of course, the project was brought to life by the outstanding construction team at Profile Custom Homes. Their work and focus on quality building is a hallmark of their service experience, and the key to realizing a modern custom home project like this one—a design style that often incorporates less-conventional features that can be challenging to build. On the interior, the client oversaw design, including finishings such as light, Scandinavian-inspired wood joinery in the kitchen and subtle hardwood flooring throughout, all to complement the natural wood-clad exterior. A stunning architectural fireplace and an earthy, neutral colour palette inside allow various architectural features to take centre stage. We particularly love the floating staircase and upper-level catwalk that allows the family and their friends to take in the space below.

Contemporary Living is a strong example of the close collaboration that occurs between our team, industry partners and our clients. By working to understand clients’ architectural vision, along with the way they live, play, and potentially work in their living space, we can help them create forever homes that speak to their unique lifestyle aspirations. By teaming with experienced and talented industry partners, we can make that vision a reality.

The David Small Design Team
Contact a member of our team today to learn more about our custom home design process.

If you had the opportunity to design and build the custom home of your dreams, what would it look like? How would it function—and how would it enable you to live life to the fullest? It’s a question that David Small had pondered throughout his career. He had built homes for himself and his family, but not a last home. Brimming with ideas about what that structure could accomplish, he set out to create a place that would draw on the entirety of his architectural design experience, where aspiration and innovation would come together in an ideal setting catered to his family’s lifestyle needs.

His desire was to create something entirely unique and special, but also warm and inviting. While he didn’t intend to build an architectural calling card for his fast-growing practice, it would become that and more—a love letter to his architectural influences and his family upbringing; a definitive composition in his signature Natural Modern style. This project would be untethered from market pressures or the kind of stylistic considerations that would inform the design of a home made to be sold. This was a home that would be well-used. It would serve as a space to create a lifetime of memories.

He would comb several neighbourhoods searching for the perfect location to build. There were many options, expansive lots that were spacious and appealing, but none that satisfied his vision. Finally, he found a parcel of land just a few streets away from the glass-wrapped dwelling that he had previously designed, the eponymous David’s House. The wooded lot offered a dramatic entry point that would help shelter the new dwelling from the street. The natural canopy enveloped the property in a sense of calm. It was the perfect place to form a connection between this custom home and the surrounding environment.

It would also serve as the ultimate expression of David’s vision to erase the lines between inside and out. The Last House, as it would be named, would reference modern architecture’s embrace of material rawness with extensive use of bare concrete, glass and steel—and exposure of the building’s structural framework—then juxtapose it against a palette of natural wood and stone. With cleverly-deployed geometric massing and material balance, visitors would immediately be struck by its sense of comfort and the harmonious interplay of opposing architectural elements.

Realizing an architectural design vision

In crafting The Last House, David and his family discussed their ambitions and carefully reviewed how they lived on a daily basis. How could their dream home work to suit their needs? The design criteria were developed from their routines and detailed feature wish list. It was a process familiar to our founder and our team.

The ideation and design methodology behind The Last House was the same one that we apply when working with our custom home clients. Our mission is to learn how they live, what they aspire to achieve and now their new home can forward those lifestyle goals. The philosophy is simple: a true custom home should complement our clients’ lives, rather than proscribing functionality and flow based on a rigid set of architectural principles.

In this case, the brief called for a feeling of movement and transparency. A range of intricate details—too expansive to cover in their entirety here—gave a nod to various aspects of the Small family’s personal history: the signature porthole tangerine door, a nod to the mid-century modern homes of their childhood; a living wall in the entry foyer referencing David’s passion for building connections between architecture and nature. A dedicated nook housing an heirloom piano that calls out the generations of family members that once played it.

David was on-site with his construction team every day during the build phase. He would make continual adjustments to his design and navigate technical challenges that came to light. A monumental structural concrete feature wall, for example, would require additional bracing and support. But as a labour of love, the opportunities inherent in The Last Home propelled David to constantly seek out ideal design solutions. It’s an attitude—the pursuit of perfection—that permeates our entire client experience and has become a firm-wide hallmark.

A Natural Modern masterpiece

Detailed landscaping and carefully-planned sightlines enhance the home’s connection to nature, but it’s the extensive use of glass that brings outside directly into virtually every room in the house. The master suite, for example, has a treehouse feel as the room is hugged by backyard foliage. The family space that houses the living and dining room is entirely transparent, offering views of the property on two sides.  It was there that David’s Natural Modern ethos was brought to life in a single moment.

Throughout the project, the windows in ‘The Bridge,’ as he dubbed the space, had been covered in builder’s plastic to shield the glass from construction-related damage. A degree of light was able to pry through the sheeting, but the windows were kept translucent. As the end of the construction phase arrived, David walked through the room and began peeling back that plastic. Sheet after sheet slipped off the window panels. He was left speechless as the outside seemed to pour in. Light filled the bridge and the landscape of the property became immediately connected to the interior. It was exactly as he’d envisioned. The Last House, his family’s forever home, was finished.

Upon reflection, David has come to see the home as his greatest professional achievement. That it delivers immense personal happiness while making a powerful architectural statement is a testament to his dedication to the project, along with the potential that emerges when designing a fully customized residence.

Every home in our portfolio is influenced by the expertise needed to craft The Last House—yet there will never be another home exactly like it.

The David Small Design Team

Contact a member of our team today to learn more about our custom home design process.

In developing the Natural Modern design ethos early in our firm’s history, we focused on the seamless integration of custom home architecture with the surrounding landscape. The goal was to create a school that was as distinctive as it was unmistakable. We’ve since employed it across a wide range of urban locales, but it was when we introduced Natural Modern to an alpine setting that it took on an entirely new life. In that context, we began referring to our design approach as Mountain Modern. It’s one that has garnered the attention of home owners from across North America for its uncompromising commitment to architectural truth. It embodies a spirit that combines family-friendly features while accommodating a multitude of diverse lifestyle needs.

Perhaps it goes without saying that situating a custom home amid towering mountains sets the stage for architectural design success. Rugged cliff sides, seemingly endless sunsets and awe-inspiring vistas offer the ultimate natural canvas to create a truly unique home.

But capitalizing on those opportunities requires a deft architectural hand. It’s not uncommon for aggressively-designed homes to dominate their mountain setting, drawing attention to hulking forms and ill-conceived material selections rather than carefully integrating the home into the neighbouring landscape. Mountain modern is a design language all its own, one that’s voiced softly—listening and respecting rather than attempting to obnoxiously overpower.

An enduring presence aligned with nature

So, what defines Mountain Modern? The style relies heavily on natural materials—think exterior use of stone and timber—textured treatments and robust structuring. But it also welcomes the use of industrial-inspired materials such as exposed steel columns. It nods to traditional European alpine architecture with sharp roof peaks and ample use of exterior glazing, but references the topography that frames it with an embrace of chiselled angularity and a distinctive boldness.

It conveys a sense of durability and resilience. This is a reflection of the enduring nature of alpine environments themselves. They are a steadfast presence, staking claim to their space for millennia. While we would never be so presumptuous to assume that one of our homes would enjoy that sort of epoch-spanning longevity, our structures are designed for multiple generations of families to enjoy and build lasting memories.

A Mountain Modern home also makes extensive use of earthen tones and a neutral colour palette that forms a natural bond with the rocky or coniferous-covered terrain that surround it. It is striking, yet blends in seamlessly. The mountain speaks, while the home sits patiently listening.

Perhaps most importantly, it works with the property on which it sits, leveraging slope and immovable natural features such as rock outcroppings or boulders as design features. It seeks to create a boundary-less connection between indoors and out.

Our signature use of covered terraces, outdoor living areas and floor-to-ceiling designs, flooding indoor spaces with natural light from soaring windows, create a feeling of warmth and comfort. Mountain Modern homes are positioned to maximize seasonal light exposure and to capture year-round alpine views.

A Colorado alpine escape

Informed by breathtaking Rocky Mountain scenery, our current project in Evergreen Colorado—approximately 20 miles west of Denver—is likely the finest example of our Mountain Modern ethos put into practice.

When complete, the family home’s mono-slope roofline, floor-to-ceiling windows and accentuated deck overhangs will allow its owners to unwind and enjoy the space throughout the seasons. Maximizing the time for family connections and relaxation was a key focus in the design discovery process. We worked with the owners to understand their lifestyle requirements, how they planned to utilize this inspired structure, along with their long-term residential ambitions.

In the final design, every space was utilized to its full potential, with flat roofs on each storey unveiling multi-level decks that integrate exterior and interior spaces and help focus attention on the nearby peaks. The cascading effect of the home’s design is informed by nearby mountain streams and further underscores our goal of creating direction connections to the local environment.

Inside, nearly every principal living area is defined by towering glass panes that frame the Rocky Mountains in all of their idyllic splendour. The objective was for the residents to wake up each morning and look across the horizon as if they were staring into the pages of an alpine magazine, daydreaming about one day immersing themselves in the mountains’ dream-like magnificence.

Only in this case, that view is theirs to cherish for as long as they occupy their Colorado home.

Looking to create your own Mountain Modern masterpiece? Contact a member of our team today to learn more about our custom home design process and our architectural design methodology.

The David Small Design Team