THEORY OF EVOLUTION

In Toronto, Studio Valle de Valle advances its own thinking while bringing new life to a historic house

- TEXT BY SAM COCHRAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEPHEN KENT JOHNSON STYLED BY MICHAEL REYNOLDS

How do you evolve a great idea? It's a question that Giancarlo Valle and Jane Keltner de Valle, partners of the newly rechristened practice Studio Valle de Valle, ask themselves often.

Project to project, the two endeavor to build conceptual through lines, referencing past successes without resting on repeats. “We always want to create new recipes, but we have ingredients that we know work,” reflects Giancarlo. “Maybe we'll add a new spice here, a new sauce there. In this field, you create your own rules, but you can also break them.”

Case in point, the firm’s latest project: a comprehensive update to one of Toronto’s oldest houses. A short drive but a world away from the city’s bustling downtown, the 19th-century Italianate edifice had undergone piecemeal alterations over time, resulting in an awkward pastiche of styles. “Nothing felt grounded,” recalls Giancarlo, who sought to create a fresh and resolved world within its historic brick shell. “We had to give this house its weight again.”

LANTERNS BY DIMORESTUDIO HANG ABOVE THE DINING ROOM'S CUSTOM GIANCARLO VALLE TABLE AND CHAIRS; PAINTING BY HUGO MCCLOUD. OPPOSITE A GIANCARLO VALLE SOFA AND A PAIR OF VINTAGE DANISH ARMCHAIRS MINGLE IN THE LIVING ROOM, WHERE GUNNAR ASPLUND SCONCES FLANK THE SCULPTURAL FIREPLACE; COCKTAIL TABLE BY JOSEF FRANK.