Green-Roofed Euclid Avenue House is an Ecologically Sensitive Dream Home

Janna Levitt and Dean Goodman of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/bright-green-shipping-container-hut-welcomes-visitors-to-evergreen-brickworks-in-toronto/">Levitt Goodman Architects</a> have designed and built a wonderful green home in Canada that is covered with an expansive <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/green-roof">green roof</a>. Their compact Euclid Avenue House located on an <a href="http://inhabitat.com/glen-park-residence-maximizes-space-in-sf-urban-infill/">urban infill</a> lot in downtown <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/Toronto">Toronto</a> is a testament to their sustainably progressive firm. The three-story home is flexibly designed for the family's changing needs, and it serves as a prototype for urban infill and ecologically sensitive housing.

The large green roof on top of the home changes colors with the seasons.

The compact home is located on a standard 20 foot-wide downtown Toronto lot.

To make the 1,550 sq ft home bigger than it seems, the ground floor features tall 12-foot ceilings, an open floor plan, and large sliding window doors at the front and the back.

Large windows throughout the house illuminate the space with <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/daylighting">daylight</a>, helping the family get through the long and dark Canadian winters.

The layout of the home was designed in anticipation of the family's changing needs over the years.

As Levitt and Goodman's children grow up and eventually leave, the home can evolve over time.

Overall the duo designed the home using a pragmatic approach to green building practices.

An efficient wood fireplace adds extra heat when needed.

The backyard is well shaded and provides extra outdoor living space.

The home also includes a large green roof on top and a small vegetated balcony on the second floor.

The extra vegetation soaks up rainwater and adds extra color and warmth to the home and the neighborhood.

The firm describes the house: "<em>Compact, ecologically smart, affordable and successfully integrated within a diverse streetscape, the Euclid Avenue House is a useful prototype for new urban housing. The project’s design restraint, responsive plan and its unity of architecture and nature establish an array of alternatives to the shortcomings of Toronto’s housing typologies.</em>

"Simplicity of means has resulted in a strategically planned and relaxed living space that accommodates the life of a full family and invites the varying temperature, light and colour of Toronto’s fluctuating seasons into the house, imbuing it with a rural sensibility that is an astonishing compliment to its urban setting."