Maison Kirsh

Gold Winner
Design Awards, 2021

Finalist, Award of Excellence in Architecture
Single-family residential buildings in urban areas category
Ordre des architectes du Québec, 2021

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Built in 1934, the Kirsh house is one of the first Montreal houses to adopt a resolutely modern style.

Designed by architects Shorey & Ritchie, it is entirely covered with white plaster and characterized by a rounded connection of the south and west facades and by a large horizontal strip upstairs.

Despite an avant-garde treatment of the facades on the streets, the interior design of the house and the composition of the rear facade were originally traditional and did not bear witness to the modern advances brought at the time by the great masters of the movement, such as spatial fluidity and natural light in the heart of the houses.

In a modernist spirit, the project proposes the integration of an extension on the courtyard side, the creation of dynamic and fluid interior volumes in the image of the facades on the streets and the contribution of natural light to the living spaces of the house.

Thus, the extension of the strip on the rear facade links the facades together. Just as the opening of a large vertical bay window in the extension makes it possible to create a double-height living room opening the house onto its garden while providing a great supply of overhead light to the entire building.

Like the work done on the outside of the house. The layout of the interior spaces has been revised, guided by modernist ideas such as the free plan.
On the ground floor, the spaces are now defined by the variations in the heights of the floors and ceilings. Only the sanitary facilities, a block of wood placed in the center of the house and the new curved staircase sequenced and energized the space.
The interior materials here are limited. White walls and light wood floors, all punctuated by touches of primary colors brought by the works of art.

The project enhances this testimony to the modern movement by supporting its uniqueness while maintaining its subtle integration into the urban fabric of Montreal.