Veil House / 5468796 Architecture

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Text description provided by the architects. In a prairie-value, conservative-minded early 20th-century Winnipeg suburb composed primarily of large-scale, traditional-style dwellings, our clients sought a home in which to age in place and enjoy a high degree of both airiness and privacy. Veil House is arranged on a loose nine-square grid organized around a central courtyard. The residence is configured as a series of free-flowing open living spaces, (living, family, dining, kitchen, circulation) framed by solid utility blocks, (washroom, laundry, fireplace, storage, appliances). This interplay eliminates the need for walls and doors. The unique configuration allows all living spaces to be spatially defined while also visually and acoustically connected. Double height spaces – sloped ceilings (kitchen + family room), infinite ceiling (dining room), double volume (living room), and open volume (courtyard) blur the grid in sections and create a private primary bedroom on the upper floor.

The house is situated at grade — rare for a city that receives large amounts of snowfall — with an interior ramp that enables universal access across two floors. This floating feature ascends from the main level, allowing natural light into the basement while providing emergency egress. Firmly planting the main floor at grade results in a seamless extension of the interior spaces to the courtyard and surrounding yard. The blocks and ramp are blanketed by a veil. ‘Propped’ up by the utility blocks, the veil follows the ramp, starting at ground level spiraling up, and peeling off the wall to enclose the private patio on top of the garage, dappling light on the west and south sides of the house while at the same time creating privacy. The veil continues, covering the entrances and ‘re-attaching’ back to the house to complete the spiral. Strategically perforated over windows and balconies, the veil creates a sense of wonder and curiosity from the street, while elegantly filtering daylight into the interiors and allowing those inside to view the outside world without being seen.

The veil delicately floats in space, tack-welded to the knife edge of cantilevered steel supports. The result is a low-resolution, pixelated form that, if collapsed back to the planar surface of a rectilinear shape, would return to its uniform and conventional running bond pattern. It strategically peels from the house to create interstitial spaces on both floors. Weathered steel has a velvet-like patina that possesses a keen material sensibility while also giving the house a restrained presence. Its longevity is assured by Winnipeg’s dry and often sunny climate. While the material is foreign to the neighborhood, the geometry is familiar, reflecting the deep and tall hip roofs of its neo-Gothic and neo-Georgian Neighbours. Veil House functions as both architecture and sculpture, drawing connections between architecture and industry, structure and decoration, retreat, and expression.