546′s Veil House combines functionality with innovation

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In one of Winnipeg’s suburban neighbourhoods, among streets lined with traditionally built homes with tall sloped pitched roofs and deep front lawns, lies a modern take on a private family home.

The Veil House is one of 5468796 Architecture’s newest projects and pays homage to the classic architecture of the neighbourhood while pushing the conversation forward on innovation and housing design.

The name of the home comes from the original owners’ desire to maximize their privacy. Naturally weathered corten steel and treated cedar wood panels wrap around the interior of the home and provide a screen over the windows and balconies, “veiling” life inside while maximizing light into the home.

“The house was really designed from the inside out, in a way, in terms of its massing,” project architect Ken Borton of 5468796 said. “This veil element is what really unifies all of those blocks together as a way to create a cohesive building in the end.”

Featuring an enclosed central courtyard and a ramp that ascends through the whole house, the 5,145-square-foot home with a 590-square-foot attached garage took about two and a half years to build from the initial design meetings to the finished project in 2020. Designed as a “forever home” for its clients, Mr. Borton and partner-in-charge Sasa Radulovic, along with partner Johanna Hurme, worked closely to tailor to the owners’ needs while pursing the firm’s goal of building better places and better cities for people to live in.

Founded in 2007, the Winnipeg-based architecture studio takes its name from its corporation number, a record of the time and place of the studio’s conception, Mr. Radulovic said. The name, often shortened to 546, has become synonymous for the studio’s unique style and progressive designs that have defined their work.

“It’s all part and parcel of the same pursuits. The idea of bringing something new to the conversation – advancing the conversation – whatever the building type is, or topology is,” Mr. Radulovic said of 546. “We always ask ourselves, ‘How can we make it better?’”

Mr. Radulovic said the Veil House takes a nod from the past and while taking a modern look at architecture and design. In fact, a unique request by the clients made for one of the most challenging and, Mr. Radulovic said, rewarding features of the house: a ramp that would make the house completely accessible as the clients’ aged.

“It’s unusual to go a whole floor in a ramp and it takes a lot of space to make that happened and we said, ‘Yeah, that’s a challenge we’re interested in tackling for you,’” Mr. Borton said. “That ultimately proved to have more uses than just the accessibility and future so it worked really well.”

The ramp became an important aspect that affected how light was carried throughout the house, from the top floor all the way down into the basement, creating an extended ceiling under the ramp. By the end of the design process, the ramp also informed the veil of treated cedar panels into welded corten steel sheets spiraling around the house, which follows the flow of the ramp.

“It’s an element that certainly defines half of the house,” Mr. Radulovic said.

The ramp was one of the elements that drew retired businessman Bob Stuebing and his wife, Eileen, to the Veil House when the couple decided to move home to Winnipeg from Toronto. Originally looking for a condo and reluctant to consider houses, the Stuebings were drawn to the Veil House’s accessibility when they first saw the home in 2021.

The Stuebings were immediately drawn to the house when they first saw it. “We were taken with it as soon as we walked through the door, it’s just different,” Mr. Stuebing said.

“This house ticked all the boxes.”

The Stuebings were ultimately sold on the house by its warm and welcoming atmosphere, a big draw for their many nieces and nephews who they said feel right at home whenever they visit.

“As big as it is, as different as it is, it’s a very warm and friendly house and the rooms work for our family, which is the main reason – the only reason – we came back to Winnipeg,” Mr. Stuebing said. “We’ve sort of become the family clubhouse.”

After purchasing the home in October, 2021, the Stuebings hired 546 to revamp the lowest level to better fit their own needs, transforming the original three bedrooms into two bedrooms – one queen and one king with a full ensuite. Three closets were also converted into a 400-bottle wine cellar to accompany the pre-existing gym and media centre. The Stuebings moved into the home in May, 2022.

The space where the Stuebings spend the majority of their time, and one of their biggest selling points, is the 16-square-foot interior courtyard. Located in the centre of the main level with up and outward sloping walls to maximize light from outside with a 32-square-foot opening at the roof, the courtyard is flanked on three sides by the kitchen, living room and family room and includes a top of line fire table, added by the Stuebings.

“We’re out there a lot and if you took that feature out of it, it would be a different house. That really becomes the focal point of the house,” Mr. Stuebing said.

Even with new homeowners, the Veil House continues to customize itself to those who live within in it, encompassing 546′s design process to make each home completely new and one of kind.

Mr. Radulovic recalled meeting with someone who was referred by a previous client. “We took him in this case for a tour around some of our past projects and they said, ‘Well, I can’t see my house in any one of these,’ and we said, ‘That’s precisely the point,’” Mr. Radulovic said.

“Your house will be entirely different because of who you are and you’re not any of these people that we did the projects for.”