A Sun-Lit Living Addition

A young family hopes to host more gatherings in a thoughtful kitchen and living expansion to their 1930 Belmont brick home.

DATE: 2023-2024

Tools: AUTOCAD, SKETCHUP, ENSCAPE

TEAM: Michael Kim, PROJECT ARCHITECT

ROLES: Design Assistant, BIM Lead, Modelling Lead, COnstruction Admin

Enamored with their brick Belmont Park home, but determined to host more family get-togethers in a larger kitchen and dining space, the clients enlisted the architecture team of MKA to design a sensitive addition that would provide greater light and breathing room to both the first floor and the basement.

While initially interested in replicating and joining the historic clinker brick facade of the main house, it quickly became clear that the new space wanted to be a successor rather than a carbon copy. Through several iterations, it evolved into a spacious living and dining hall with an extended kitchen below a custom Dutch gable, grafted into the rear facade with new LVL beams. Generous apertures allow sunlight from five principal directions - including a modified dual pitch skylight above, and a well-lit egress window for the basement guest room below.

This was Alex’s first professional project on the design team from start to finish, directly communicating and iterating with the client, and represents my in-practice introduction to construction administration.