Villa Argento
Villa Argento
Argento was designed with the clients’ craft in mind. As veteran architectural metal and glass fabricators, the clients wanted a custom residence that would showcase their capacity within their field of expertise, and allow them to participate in the design and building process as artisans.
The site is located in a rural residential neighbourhood, along a major arterial road near the village center. The prominent location and the rich cultural heritage of the area created the perfect ground to develop a highly-crafted legacy home.
The project assumes the name Argento—an Italian word which translates to English as silver—which is both a nod to the clients’ Italian heritage, and to the material. Silver is a metal which takes on many finishes: polished, brushed, hand-worked, carved, etched and even tarnished. In particular, the colour qualities, and workability of silver as a material served as inspiration for various design elements in the project.
On the exterior, Eramosa stone in its various grains read as a grey silver, while bronze anodized aluminum accents applied to the roof soffits, flashing, windows, and door cladding read as tarnished silver. Mirror-finished polished stainless steel adorns the interior architecture as structural, connective, and decorative elements. In various applications, scales, and materials, the reflective/iridescent quality of silver is explored. The client’s passion for craftsmanship and innovation drove the majority of building elements to be drawn and designed at a 1:5 scale, and in some instances, custom engineered and fabricated. As a result, details throughout the building provide resolution at all scales, and demonstrate the limits of design and fabrication.
The home was originally conceived to have large single source windows openings that filled the rooms with light, but because the house is situated on the north side of the street with the front facing south south east. We had to consider different strategies to control heating and cooling. Some of traditional passive solar elements were used including 1.2m 4 ft overhangs. Windows were placed high up to the soffit line to maximize shading. However the bulk of the efforts were placed on the mechanical system. Ecologix, a Canadian company that fabricates zoned hydronic air handlers, was contacted. The home was segregated into 11 separate zones of heat radiant floors married to 11 zones of cooling and supplemental heat. Coupled with a home automation system, it is possible to program and manage all the zones separately heating and cooling 1000 sq.ft at a time. The indoor air quality is managed via 2 main systems one is a ducted ERV system the introduces fresh air into the home on a measured basis the other is a makeup air system that preconditions air when mechanical venting of the home is required.
The filtration of air is processed through various stages of filtration stage one mechanical filters 4” pleated then UV filters to sterilize the air from any air-borne bacteria, HEPA filters are used exclusively for the fresh air inlets. Further study went into the water reuse system. Argento is the first known in Ontario to not only harvest rain water for reuse, but it also collects all sink, and shower discharge and filters all contaminants. The system is capable of storing over 15,000 liters on site to use for water closet flushing and irrigation. There are two reflecting ponds that serve as a unique part of the filtering process.
The project captures the client's craft in the elements such as: the mirror finish stainless steel clad ceilings in the wine room, structural glass floors, back painted glass walls, linear shower drains, solid stainless steel and walnut handrails, custom profiled soffits, large skylight, cantilevered glass staircase, glass gable staircase and internal reinforcing of all treads, 5ft front door hinged on the glass, etc. The front door recants a blessing one that is inscribed on each face of the door and it is etched in braille that language of touch the messages inside projects onto the world as you leave the home.
