When Greendot Architects’ Titka Safarzadeh and Saied Mahboubi were approached by their client to re-imagine 269 Coleridge Ave. in Toronto, they had their work cut out for them
The shared driveway of what used to be a small two-bedroom bungalow needed to be bigger, as the homeowner wanted more parking spaces, and the garage couldn’t go either. They also wanted to have the second storey be the same size as the main floor used to be.
So tasked with this challenge, Safarzadeh and Mahboubi started thinking about how they could “squeeze” the house at the bottom but “blow it up” on top, all while still making it look nice.
Metal was used for the roof to be able to create the shapes more easily.
The two architects then turned to the Japanese art of paper folding for inspiration, and thus 269 Coleridge Ave. became the “Origami House.”
And while the concept is genius, executing it definitely wasn’t easy. 
An aerial view of the house.
“The challenge was all the beams and the structure to go with the building since it is an unconventional shape,” he told blogTO.
The family room opens to the backyard.
The triangular shapes and the cantilevered rooflines require extreme attention to detail.
The origami shape of the house.
You’ll notice all the lines and angles follow each other, even the drain pipes, which is a testament to how painstaking the build was.
The foyer.
But now that the Origami House is complete, it is a work of art.
The living room with a large picture window.
The unique design combined with the meticulous build create an incredibly stunning ultra-modern house.
Simple details add dimension to the ultra-modern house.
And as cool as the outside of the house is, the interior is also a feast for the eyes. 
The basement wet bar.
“When you look at the house, you say, ‘This is a super modern house’, and we wanted people to get the same idea when they entered the house as well,” explained Safarzadeh.
The dining area.
Inside the three-bedroom, four-bathroom home, you’ll find a large open-plan main floor with a simple black-and-white palette.
The sleek, minimalist kitchen.
This black-and-white theme is consistent throughout the home.
The front of the house.
There’s also a ton of bespoke touches throughout, such as the custom millwork and all the doors were custom designed by Safarzadeh and Mahboubi.
The stairs leading to the basement.
But perhaps the most stunning feature of the house is the staircase.
The stairwell from the outside of the house with three windows to bring natural light in.
Mahboubi explained the various challenges of creating these cantilevered stairs that are actually outside the house’s main structure in order to follow the angles of the origami shapes.
Custom millwork off the kitchen.
Another feature Safarzadeh is particularly proud of is the amount of light they were able to bring into the middle of the home.
The view to the backyard.
The roof couldn’t have skylights, so they worked around this by creating balconies that bring in natural light.
The back patio.
Now, 269 Coleridge Ave. is listed for $1,950,000.
