Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Design Team: Reigo & Bauer

Area: 470 m²

Year: 2024

Photography: Doublespace Photography

Design Features: Glasgow Residence is Reigo & Bauer's comprehensive renewal of a multilevel family home in Kitchener, Ontario. Rather than erasing every trace of the existing house, the architects use a brighter neutral palette, continuous curves and clearer visual connections to reorganize entertaining, retreat and everyday family life. Dark mahogany gives way to lighter surfaces, while retained rough-stone columns, wide oak flooring and Italian limestone preserve a sense of weight and warmth.

The defining gesture is a curved white welded-steel stair in the double-height entrance hall. Articulated treads and risers form a continuous surface, a slender balustrade tightens along the arc, and a solid bronze handrail brings tactile warmth to the white steel. More than a freestanding object, the stair binds entrance, upper floor and living spaces into one field of view, turning movement through the home into a measured spatial event.

Retained rough-stone columns frame the main living room and views toward the trees. Two steps lead to an informal seating area before the open kitchen, while a three-sided glass fireplace is suspended within a rounded plaster pier. It separates activities without interrupting sightlines. The pier echoes the custom cooker hood, carrying the language of curves from the stair into the kitchen, furniture and circulation.

A restrained material palette deepens the atmosphere. Wide-plank oak supports daily use, Italian limestone lines walls and becomes carved steps, and off-white handleless cabinetry reduces the visual weight of the kitchen. Glass, bronze and darker millwork introduce focused shadows. Luxury comes less from contrast than from small shifts in texture, edge and sheen, allowing the rooms to remain calm while changing subtly through the day.

A second white-steel stair continues to the basement, softened by caramel carpeting and a bronze handrail that terminates at the floor. Full-height glazing brings daylight into the gym, sunken wine cellar and lounge. An oil-rubbed steel wine rack rests on a limestone plinth while concealed cold storage keeps the composition clear. Grey-stained oak battens wrap the garden-facing games room and bar, extending the same level of attention into the home's lower level.

Across the pool terrace, a separate pool house completes the social landscape. It works as a private retreat for the family and as an independent lounge, kitchen and changing space when guests arrive. House, terrace, pool and pavilion are tied together by landscape, while stone, oak and softened corners recur inside. Glasgow Residence is therefore less a display of precious finishes than a coherent framework for movement, pause and view.

Design Team: Reigo & Bauer was founded in 2005 by Merike Bauer and Stephen Bauer and is based in Toronto. Working across architecture and interiors, the studio focuses primarily on new houses and substantial residential renovations. Its work combines clear geometry and restrained material palettes with a contemporary reading of vernacular and classical spatial ideas.

The practice balances open sightlines with legible rooms and moments of intimacy; beneath the calm outlines, joints, millwork and custom fabrication do much of the spatial work. The design team for Glasgow comprised Merike Bauer, Stephen Bauer and Victoria Dragoni. Country Lane Builders led construction; Renca + Heilimo, Bulthaup and Homestead Woodworks contributed millwork, FlatOut Industries fabricated metalwork, and Grassi Pietre supplied natural stone.