A garden suite in Toronto's Dovercourt Village, built for Robert Porto. Design by architect Timothy Mitanidis of Creative Union Network.Riley Snelling/Riley Snelling
In February, 2022, when garden suites became legal in Toronto, they were subject to the same angular plane restrictions as laneway houses (a garden suite is, essentially, a laneway house without a laneway). And without getting tangled in legalese and throwing a lot of measurements around, it meant that, basically, at a certain height, roofs had to slope. No straight, tall boxes. This was done so the buildings would cast fewer shadows, to mute the visual impact on neighbourhoods and, as architect Craig Race wrote on lanescape.ca, to “act as a symbol of respect.”
But in November, 2024, the province, in the hopes of getting more houses built, prohibited municipalities from applying those restrictions.
Since it often takes a year to plan and another year for construction, it’s almost certain that only a handful of garden suites were built while the restrictions were in place. Which is why architect Timothy Mitanidis of Creative Union Network calls the garden suite he designed for Robert Porto in Dovercourt Village a “snapshot.”
By dropping the main floor a few steps below grade, the roof angles were so much higher up the walls they’d no longer cause low ceilings.Riley Snelling/Riley Snelling
A snapshot, it should be noted, that also contained a solution. Angular planes, you see, cause bumped heads on second floors (except within dormers) and make usable space only, well, usable for activities such as sleeping or sitting at a desk.
So, how to get a full-height ceiling?
Do like they did in ancient Greece, and dig down, Mr. Mitanidis laughs: “We first did that, well, it was out of necessity, on a renovation of my father’s house in Greece; it was an old stone house and the way they had structured it is, on the underside, the lower level, it was for animals … it was only six feet tall … and the people lived on top. We don’t have animals any more, but we wanted to claim that space. So we dug down.”
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This, he continues, became the perfect solution for Toronto. By dropping the main floor a few steps below grade, the top of the second floor would become lower, which meant that the (then required) roof angles were so much higher up the walls they’d no longer cause bruised foreheads.
Walking down into Mr. Porto’s newest income unit – the street-facing house has rental units also – and one forgets, almost instantly, that the ground is now somewhere around one’s waist. And that’s owing, mostly, to getting eyes to travel up and up again: in the double-height foyer, they first travel up a wooden stair, pause at light dancing on a delicious wooden screen (fabricated by Kevin Klinger of R & K Woodworking Specialists), to rest, finally, upon a trio of skylights.
Architect Timothy Mitanidis of Creative Union Network calls the garden suite he designed a 'snapshot.'Riley Snelling/Riley Snelling
Should one turn to the left and enter the kitchen, the illusion remains. Here, three big windows that frame shrubbery, the neutral palette of whites and warm greys, and the lack of bulkheads – which requires a lot of figuring and drawing – allow light and air to be topmost in one’s mind. Walk to the living area at the rear, and Creative Union Network has resisted the temptation to build to the lot line in favour of providing Mr. Porto’s tenant with a patio; this, again, brings in even more light and keeps the eye travelling. It’s also rather pleasant for the tenant.
“If you compare it to a balcony at a condo …” Mr. Mitanidis says, leaving his thought unfinished.
Upstairs, under the gable roof there is plenty of circulation space as well as two bedrooms with large closets and a full bathroom. In the smaller bedroom, a square window that looks into the double-height foyer is a touch of whimsy, and interestingly, the bathroom has been divided into two closable spaces since, with renters, there was the possibility of “roomies” rather than a family.
“We have the toilet on the outside as a separate water closet, and then the wash area is separate,” Mr. Mitanidis says (there is a powder room on the main level, tucked under the stairs).
The home features a wooden stair, with natural light dancing on a delicious wooden screen.Riley Snelling/Riley Snelling
Over all, this is a garden suite that feels more like a small, postwar home. By borrowing light and space and working around the bylaw creatively, Creative Union Network has made 1,250 square feet feel more like 1,700.
“That simple move, to drop things down, really opens up a lot of opportunity,” Mr. Mitanidis says, standing next to the wooden screen and looking down. “If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be able to have the stair located here … if you’re losing, say, 200 [usable] square feet around the perimeter that you’re building anyway, you would never have a connection space that brings it all together, that makes it feel more spacious.”
Of course, architectural quality comes at a price. After taking out a line of credit for $650,000 on the main house, Mr. Porto says he had to add “about a hundred and change” to that initial figure. Then again, he adds, he decided to use an agent to find a tenant and “had a bidding war … I started at $3,800, and then it went up to $4,100 a month.”
But before we file this snapshot away as a creative solution to a problem that no longer exists, it should be noted that in July, 2025, the municipal government introduced “new height and roof slope limits that effectively operate the same way” as the old bylaw, architect Daniel Hall writes on the sustainable.to blog. “Although the Bard famously wrote ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’ this may be more a case of ‘every rose has its thorn.’”
Mr. Hall goes on to say that, since an appeal was filed with the Toronto Local Appeal Body, “the earlier, angular-plane-free framework continues to apply.” For now, at least.
Riley Snelling/Riley Snelling