Contemporary Court Yard Design - Wychwood Park, Toronto, ON

An outdated corner lot is transformed in a contemporary court yard.

Before:
The challenge with this small corner property was to create a landscape that provides a welcoming entrance, is reflective to the architecture and helps to integrate the height of the house with the ground plane.

The property is facing a busy main street and a secondary side road so it was necessary to create privacy from the street and to buffer the traffic noise.

A 2 story tall window faces the front of the property, the only garden area the client has. With the kitchen and the working area facing the garden, another big challenge was to naturalize the property and make it more environmentally friendly.

After:

In order to connect the house to the landscape we worked with the strong colour contrast of the house. A curved planting bed steppes down from the house to the ground level, bringing the house to the ground floor. An upright weeping beech act as vertical element to bridge the ground with the hight of the building.

The meandering path leads to the lower entry of the house and opens the view towards the entry. A new shed provides space for tools and garbage cans and with its green roof it adds to the environmental enhancement of the property.

The hard asphalt is replaced by a combination of permeable pea gravel alternating with natural stone banding. Plant material such as grasses, ground cover and trees are selected based on their drought tolerance. The chosen colour scheme of bluish green, purple red and lime green gives the landscape a dramatic effect and ties the design to the house.

Ornamental grasses and wooden screens create a more intimate court yard and reduce the impact of the traffic.