Coca-Cola and KFC have had their secrets under lock and key for decades. Google’s proprietary search algorithm is guarded with the same vigour as Farmer’s Almanac writers conceal their weather prognosticating tools.
Architects Neal Prabhu and Nelson Kwong of nkArchitect might want to store what they know in a safety deposit box, since they’ve discovered the key to selling Modernism to people who don’t like Modern.
A case in point now sits a short jog from Pusateri’s in the Avenue Road and Lawrence area. It’s a handsome, ipe-wood– and Eramosa-limestone-clad composition of projecting and receding rectangles inserted into a ravine lot on a street filled, mostly, with faux-traditional homes. And while it’s perhaps warmer-looking than those stark, white-boxes splashed on the covers of monthly architecture magazines, it’s definitely capital ‘M’ Modern.
And one of its owners, Sheila Rother, didn’t want that … at first. “It’s just cold, I’m not interested,” she remembers thinking while touring other Modernist projects with other architects a few years ago. “And [my husband] Danny, really wanted Modern and I thought ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do this.’”
By chance, she passed a Modern home that grabbed her so strongly she was compelled to knock on the door. Ironically, some folks who had been passing by a few minutes earlier were finishing up their own unscheduled tour when the homeowner welcomed Ms. Rother into her foyer.
“I knew the minute I walked in the door that I wanted [to hire] whoever was behind this; you just get this gut feeling, you just know when you love something.”
Today, that gut feeling has become her very own nkA recipe of open rooms, big glass walls that frame a forest view and warm, woodsy finishes. She turns to Mr. Prabhu and Mr. Kwong: “You have a specific style in everything you do, even the small houses, everything is clean, straight.”
While it’s not prudent to give away too many secrets, Mr. Kwong does offer this: “There’s no real agenda to a particular project; it’s not that we lack vision, we just let the project evolve, and I think the first thing Sheila will say is that we listen. Our role is to interpret what the homeowner is looking for.”
In this age of ‘starchitects’ dictating our collective taste, those words are almost revolutionary. So lock them up or a happy, tour-demanding mob will show up at the Rothers’ front door.
To prevent that scenario, let’s provide a really good description.
The empty-nester couple, Mr. Prabhu explains, do a great deal of entertaining, so the home had to be equipped for a gaggle of shoe– and coat-removing guests and long, post-dinner goodbyes. “Also tied into that is being able to experience the house once you step in that front door,” he says. And one does get an architectural amuse-bouche in the ample foyer as light pours down from an overhead skylight and windows in every direction, while an open-tread, dark-stained stair entwines in frozen dance with a delicate “Moonlights” fixture from AM Studio.
A look straight ahead is rewarded with a wall of ravine green, for half the year at least. “This main floor was meant to have a really smooth flow,” explains Mr. Prabhu, who is also a registered interior designer. “So transition from inside to outside, from front to back, from kitchen to living space allows as many people here as possible.” Indeed, in the short time the Rothers have lived here, they’ve already hosted a party attended by over a hundred people; a cinch with that enormous fireplace, kitchen island the size of a small car (also designed by nkA) and canapé-loving double-refrigerator.
To temper the open plan just a little, various ceiling heights suggest what should take place underneath. So, while the walk from foyer to living area is made much grander with a 12-foot height, a lower block denotes where intimate dining should happen. “And even the lighting changes a bit,” Mr. Prabhu adds.
Wedged between the garage and second floor is a much cozier living room where Ms. Rother says the couple does “all of our TV-watching.” And although they don’t need it yet, nkA added “insurance” via an elevator that exits onto every floor, including this little one that’s only a half-flight of stairs up (Ms. Rother says it comes in handy when burdened with vacation luggage).
The bright top floor contains three bedrooms plus the smallish master – because they “don’t need a refuge from anything,” Mr. Prabhu laughs – and an interesting half-wall linen closet that backs onto the stairwell, while the basement level houses a generous gym and ping pong table.
And although it’s no secret that nkA chose finishes, fixtures, and planned the home’s outdoor spaces, only guests who step outside will notice the Eramosa wrapping right around the home’s exterior, and only those who sidle up to the Rothers during an unguarded moment will learn that the architects gave them “homework” during the design phase.
“It’s very easy to walk into a traditional home and say ‘I want that,’” finishes Mr. Kwong. “It’s very difficult to find a Modern house that’s exactly what you want, so you really need to trust that process.” A process that uses delicious architectural herbs and spices that, unfortunately, will soon be sealed up tight.