Maple House at Canary Landing - West Don Lands

Discipline : Landscape & Territories

Categories : Landscape Architecture / Landscape Architecture - Housing Project : Gold certification

Maple House is a 770-unit rental housing complex located in the West Don Lands, east of Toronto’s Distillery District, where the material texture from one of Toronto’s oldest districts merges with the greening strategies of this emerging post-industrial residential neighbourhood. The project is composed of two 16-storey mid-rise blocks and a 26-storey high-rise, organized around a generous public realm and outdoor amenity network.

The landscape architects played an integral role in the master planning, working closely with Cobe Architects, Architects Alliance, and the DKT client team, who all championed landscape innovation to create a more sustainable and comfortable residential realm to bring this community together.

The landscape is central to the design, emphasizing a seamless connection between the architecture and the public realm, where picturesque wayfinding helps to navigate the ground level through a sequence of courtyards and mews designed with the physical and historical patina of the district; oblong planters recalling a distillery history of whiskey barrels along with red brick pavers, Corten steel planters, and bronze hues that tie together the expression of the adjacent architecture. The robust material palette is contrasted by lush and verdant courtyard groves, where a matrix of clay brick pavers covering large underground soil volumes creates a singular unified expression across the block. Lighting is discreetly provided by suspended overhead catenary lighting, chosen to minimize objects on the ground plan. Pedestrian priorities have been maintained by consolidating vehicle movements and leading to the least conspicuous edge of the site.

Sustainable green infrastructure plays a key role in the landscape design at Maple House. Large, interconnected soil volumes stretching from face to face of the buildings support groves of trees and understory planting, providing an opportunity for a Low Impact Development (LID) approach to stormwater that incorporates passive irrigation and the direct recycling of stormwater into resilient soil zones that absorb runoff and optimize a non-potable supply of water for the abundant vegetation.

On the buildings, generous setbacks create an expansive array of outdoor amenities, including active recreation spaces, a rooftop pool, community gardens, outdoor kitchens, dining areas, and green roofs, linked by a pedestrian sky bridge that facilitates cohesive community building and eliminates the need for a duplication of services. Biodiversity roofs combine the economy of extensive green roofs punctuated by intensive green roof nodes planted with small trees, shrubs, and a diversity of pollinator groundcovers, promoting healthy, long-lived landscapes.

The design focuses on cost-effective construction, ensuring long-term maintenance flexibility. Modular elements and low-tech solutions like gravity walls instead of cast-in-place walls were used, simplifying repairs and coordination for the building owner.

The project in images