Periscope House by Atelier RZLBD
Periscope House is a house in Toronto, Canada, designed by Atelier RZLBD for a young family seeking a more personal, sustainable way to live. The project renovates a one-story bungalow and strategically adds a partial second floor, using subtraction as a tool for light, height, and clarity. What began as a straightforward addition becomes a study in restraint and sequence, with voids pulling daylight deep into the plan and giving the street a memorable new profile.
Morning light slips through a high clerestory and lands across the floor. The pared-back addition leaves a tall, quiet volume where rooms stack, overlap, and borrow light.
This renovation-addition house in East York, Toronto, by Atelier RZLBD turns budget and zoning pressures into a clear plan: keep the core, shift bedrooms down, and let the void define daily life. The result is a compact home whose sequence reads through stepped ceilings and measured openings, with public rooms to the front and private rooms tucked behind the stair.
Reorder The Ground
The original stair stays put at the north-central point, organizing the plan without drama. In front, an entry, mudroom, and kitchen line up to the north, while sitting, living, and dining form a south-side suite that opens into one generous room when needed. Past the stair, bedrooms and bathrooms settle into the rear, with the second level holding the primary suite and a balcony. It reads as a calm procession (doors kept to a minimum and views pulled long).
Step The Ceiling
Half of the proposed second floor is withheld to make height where it counts. The resulting void sets three distinct scales under a stepped ceiling: highest above the kitchen and dining, then lower above the mudroom and living, and lowest over the entry and sitting. A linear built-in bench resolves the offset between old width and new upper level, running along the south rooms as a continuous pause. It ties seating and circulation together — a quiet datum at everyday height.
Tune Light And View
A front bay window, paired with three clerestory openings, pulls daylight deep and sets a steady rhythm across the interior. Each clerestory aligns in width and position with the bay, so the pattern reads inside and out with an even cadence through the day. From the bay, the eye tracks up to the balcony above, connecting levels without fuss. At the rear, a second-floor bay in the primary bedroom sits off floor and ceiling, making a snug nook for looking out over the neighborhood.
Work Within Limits
New zoning tightens the south side setback but allows more length, prompting a rearward cantilever that stretches the plan without widening. Two bay windows extend where rules permit, emphasizing length and giving depth to facades. Inflation and a strict budget press the scheme toward partial build-out, trading floor area for volume and clarity. The open-concept arrangement still gathers everyone for meals and evenings, yet the stepped heights cue where each room begins and ends.
Late sun grazes the bench and the tall wall, warming the grain and softening edges. The addition reads modest from the street, but inside the volumes feel generous and direct. It’s a small house made patient by sequence and light, set up for family rhythm and change.
Photography courtesy of Atelier RZLBD
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