Renovation and small addition makes home better suited to modern lifestyle

A small black box extension totally transforms the back of a 1930s brick townhouse, adding space, natural light and indoor-outdoor flow

Bifold glass doors in this small addition to architecture, facade, house, gray — Bifold glass doors in this small addition to a brick townhouse now provide the easy flow between indoors and outdoors that the home had previously lacked.

Architect Natalie Dionne says the reconfiguration of outdated architecture, door, facade, home, house, property, real estate, window, gray

An extension at the back of this 1930s architecture, door, floor, house, window

An extension at the back of this 1930s architecture, ceiling, countertop, daylighting, house, interior design, kitchen, lighting, real estate, gray

The solid oak island in this kitchen steps architecture, ceiling, floor, furniture, house, interior design, kitchen, product design, table, wood, white

Finely detailed simple oak shelving on an architecture, ceiling, floor, furniture, hardwood, interior design, plywood, product design, wall, wood, brown, white

Some structural work was required to remove a architecture, ceiling, daylighting, floor, flooring, hardwood, home, house, interior design, real estate, window, wood, wood flooring, gray, orange

Architect Natalie Dionne says the layout of this architecture, daylighting, house, interior design, real estate, wood, white

Grafting a black box made of high quality architecture, building, elevation, facade, home, house, real estate, residential area, siding, white

While older homes may have attractive character features, they often still bear the layout of a time when lifestyles came with different priorities. And in many of these houses, it's the kitchen that stands out as being most out of step.

Although this 1930s red clay brick townhouse had had some renovations to it in the 1990s, the basic problems still existed says architect Natalie Dionne.

"In the kitchen, you couldn't see outside there was a small window onto a side alley and neighbouring property, but no outlook to the garden," says Dionne.

Add to that a wall dividing the kitchen from the adjacent dining room, and the back of the house felt dark and closed up.

Removing the wall required some structural work, and began the process of opening the interiors up. But to increase the available space and connect both the kitchen and dining room to the outdoors, Dionne took a less conventional approach with the small addition that extends the ground floor and the first floor bedroom.

Clad in high-quality fibrecement board, Dionne refers to the addition as a Black Box, grafted onto the original brick structure. Punching a hole through the brick wall upstairs and downstairs has completely opened up the back of the house.

For the kitchen and dining room, this connection is enhanced by the back of the house at ground level now being a wall of glass and bifolding doors.

"The Black Box adds more space to the kitchen which now opens to a courtyard for outdoor eating, while the dining area has a covered outdoor space in front of it, so it can be opened up even if it's raining."

The home's original oak floors were refurbished and provided the starting point for materials selected for the new interiors. The long island top is solid oak, while rift and quartered white oak veneer was used for cabinetry and as the interior lining of the Black Box.

"By reconfiguring the outdated internal divisions and grafting on the two contrasting black volumes, the existing architecture is enhanced and better reflects the modern lifestyle of its owners."