Dollhouse Loft by StudioAC
Dollhouse Loft unfolds inside a former factory apartment in Toronto, Canada, where StudioAC reimagines a generous double-height volume for contemporary daily life. The project recasts an existing loft in Leslieville as a series of measured thresholds, using a social platform, mezzanine bath pod, and integrated shelving to organize movement, light, and quiet work zones within the industrial shell.
Light drops from the skylights and slides along exposed brick before reaching the floor. A compressed entry gives way to height, air, and an unexpectedly calm volume. That first turn from corridor to loft sets up the project’s central tension between openness and enclosure.
Within this former toy and bottling factory apartment in Toronto’s east end, StudioAC reworks an existing live/work loft as a study in sequence. The apartment holds expansive dimensions and industrial bones, yet the renovation focuses less on spectacle and more on how people move, gather, and rest across two levels. Every intervention reads as a deliberate edit to the original volume, clarifying circulation while preserving its generous character.
Threshold And Release
Entry into the loft begins with a moment of compression at the threshold, tightening the field of view before the main room opens. That release lands in a double-height living volume, washed by four skylights and south-facing windows that pull daylight deep into the plan. Vertical scale becomes the backdrop for the project’s central moves, allowing new elements to sit within the room rather than cut it apart.
Platform As Social Room
At floor level, a custom platform steps the living area away from the adjoining kitchen and dining zones. The change in level reads as a quiet stage where friends gather, stretch out, or sit along the edge during conversation. Drawing on the idea of a Japanese Engawa and a Greek Agora, this elevated plane acts as both threshold and commons, a place to pause between work and meal.
The platform also forges a tangible link to the kitchen through an elevated surface that integrates with the island. Daily routines run along this spine, letting someone cook while another reclines only a few steps away. Physical separation stays minimal, yet each area holds its own rhythm, shaped by height, orientation, and the way light drops onto the raised floor.
Bath Pod On Mezzanine
Above, on the mezzanine level, a dedicated bath pod organizes the upper floor. The pod sits between primary bedroom and ensuite, working as divider, enclosure, and object within the larger volume. Inside, a secluded soaker tub and shower gain privacy without resorting to heavy walls that would erode the loft’s openness.
Open shelving runs beside this volume, holding an extensive library while shaping the edge of a loft office. Books, structure, and balustrade merge into one porous band that softens the separation between work zone and mezzanine circulation. From below, the stacked books and corrugated cladding give the upper level a legible form that still respects the room’s height.
Industrial Shell, Warm Core
Throughout the apartment, StudioAC balances industrial roots with softer, contemporary surfaces. Corrugated metal wraps the bath pod, echoing the building’s original factory vocabulary in a controlled, almost graphic gesture. Against that, white oak and concrete-toned stone temper the raw grain of exposed brick and timber ceilings, bringing tactility where hands and feet most often land.
These material choices reinforce the project’s choreography. Harder, more durable textures define the armature of mezzanine and pod, while warmer finishes collect around the living platform and everyday touchpoints. The result is an interior that reads as one continuous volume shaped by careful shifts in level, enclosure, and texture.
By the time daylight fades at the skylights, the hierarchy of moves becomes clear. Entry compression, raised platform, mezzanine pod, and shelving band guide how the loft is used from morning to night. Within a once purely industrial shell, the apartment now stages a measured sequence of gathering, working, and unwinding, all while keeping the original openness intact.
Photography by Felix Michaud
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