From the sidewalk, the house appears as a protective shell with a path leading to a single break.James Brittain
David and Jane Arthur’s home is not a typical house in Regina’s Cathedral neighbourhood.
The artsy enclave in the centre of Saskatchewan’s capital city has a mix of heritage homes and new builds, but Mr. Arthur said he does not expect there are any that resemble his two-storey home. It mingles a heavy, concrete base with a natural gardenscape, and a top floor that he describes as “lyrical.”
From the outside, onlookers have described it as either a fortress or an art gallery, he said. But for he and his wife, “it feels exactly like a good home should feel.”
The Arthur residence started with the South African couple – Jane, a critical-care doctor, and David, a jointer and cabinet maker – driving to Winnipeg about a decade ago. There, they worked out their plans with 5468796 Architecture, who have been described as among the country’s hardest-driving and ambitious architects.
The result was a 2,250-square-foot home that became a “dichotomy between the bricks and mortar on one side and gardens on the other side,” said Sasa Radulovic, a co-founder at the architecture firm.
The home’s distinct orange front door is tucked behind a concrete wall, which stands in as the property fence. This gives a sense of privacy, Mr. Radulovic said, despite wide walls of glass that peer out from the home and into the home’s courtyards. The bright white second floor floats on top, with gill-like slits in the folding walls that allow sunlight to fill the rooms through tall, triangular windows.
Privacy was never among the owner’s design priorities, Mr. Arthur said. To the contrary, he said, the couple feels deeply integrated into the community.
Mr. Radulovic said the Arthurs wanted a modern home that did not mimic what was around it.
Mr. Arthur recalls one of the architects asking the couple what they wanted in their home.
“It might have been the extra glass of wine talking, but we said a ‘sensuous monasticism.’”
It was a preposterous thing to say, Mr. Arthur admits, but the architects didn’t flinch. He and his wife decided on the drive home that if the architects could follow that ideal, so would they in how they decorated.
The interior has become a gallery of Mr. Arthur’s craftsmanship. Ebonized cherry cabinets line the living room. The gill-like windows on the second floor are made of fir. The dining table is a rich walnut.
“This is a gorgeous, sensual, nuanced house, that’s got a personal stamp on it,” he said.
The main floor is conceived as a series of walls and floor-to-ceiling windows that open to internal garden views.James Brittain
The concrete base of the main floor embraces an open concept area, as the Arthurs wanted, with an approximately 20-foot living room ceiling. No doors separate rooms, save the bathrooms. But its segmented room-to-room build still provides a natural threshold from doorway to living room to kitchen.
By design, the home is meant to reveal itself to a visitor as they walk through, Mr. Radulovic said.
The rooms are also accented by the massive windows that look out onto concrete courtyards and allow the outdoors to “permeate” into the home, Mr. Arthur said. He considers it a good use of space.
Lower level apartment’s sunken courtyard provides natural light.James Brittain
But any talk about the home with Mr. Arthur inevitably leads to a discussion of the courtyard garden.
Among the plants: silver birch trees, mossy thyme climbing the walls and lady’s slipper orchids.
“[My wife and I] see an immersion in gardening and the northern plains flora as transformative. It’s kept us extremely happy,” he said. In addition to their own space, the couple are custodians to a neighbour’s garden, which has public access.
“We think this house blends perfectly in this somewhat diverse neighbourhood,” said Mr. Arthur. “It allows us to walk out of a very private space, I suppose, with an inside courtyard garden, which is important to us, and step out into street and community life.”
Tucked under the concrete home is a two-bedroom secondary apartment.
Mr. Radulovic said the courtyard is sunken a level down to provide natural light through the wide windowed entranceway into the basement level. This design allows the Arthurs to use the space for either rental income or multigenerational living.