The Warren House by PLOTNONPLOT Architecture Inc.

A Contemporary Family Home Rooted in Nature and Subterranean Warmth

The Warren House by PLOTNONPLOT Architecture Inc. is a 2024 residential project located in Ottawa’s Westboro neighborhood, designed as an immersive living environment inspired by the quiet refuge of a rabbit’s lair. With a total area of 2,700 ft², the home blends protective design strategies, sculpted volumes, and natural materials to create a family-centered retreat rooted in comfort, curiosity, and spatial discovery.

Hidden behind a preserved tree and a wooden screening façade, the house introduces a distinct architectural identity that balances privacy with openness. By embedding the primary living areas partially below grade, the design creates a warm, grounded domestic core that radiates upward, shaping a sense of safety and intimacy away from the street.

Grounded Living: A Home That Embraces Subterranean Comfort

The architectural narrative begins with the decision to sink the main living spaces into the earth. This strategic move provides several advantages—thermal comfort, acoustic insulation, and a heightened sense of retreat—while still allowing natural light to cascade into the interior through carefully designed openings.

This grounding establishes a comforting backdrop for daily life, creating an atmosphere that feels both protective and inviting. The result is a home where warmth, sound, and family activity resonate naturally through its layered spaces.

Playful Shifts in Light, Levels, and Experience

Despite its modest footprint, The Warren House redefines the possibilities of vertical space. The architects carved a dramatic central void that connects multiple levels, allowing sounds of conversation, music, and play to travel fluidly throughout the home.

This verticality, along with strategically positioned windows and openings, introduces dynamic sightlines and unexpected perspectives. Each level maintains a distinct spatial quality while remaining visually—and experientially—connected.

The interiors encourage discovery: moments of gathering, corners for reading, elevated viewpoints, and sunlit pockets that shift throughout the day.

Blurring Boundaries: Terraces, Green Roofs, and Multilevel Circulation

The home’s vegetated roofs and terraced transitions create a soft continuity between indoor and outdoor environments. Circulation routes flow naturally across levels, blurring the traditional distinction between upper and lower floors.

Openings on different planes introduce light and fresh air from various orientations, reinforcing the idea of emergence and enclosure, ascent and descent. This layered spatial choreography allows residents to move through the house as though navigating a landscape—one with opportunities for connection, privacy, and reflection.

Small, intimate retreats are thoughtfully positioned throughout, offering quiet zones that support rest and contemplation within an otherwise lively family environment.

Material Expression: Timeless Foundations with Personal Character

Interior materials were selected for durability, timelessness, and warmth—wood, concrete, linen, and glass serve as the foundational palette. These surfaces establish a calm backdrop that allows the homeowners’ personality to shine through expressive elements such as patterned tile, playful wallpaper, vibrant textiles, and curated artwork.

The exterior continues this minimal palette with black steel and wood cladding. These materials wrap the home in a protective shell while framing strategic glimpses of the activity within. The façade’s carefully calibrated openings reveal and conceal the interior, maintaining privacy without sacrificing daylight.

 A Home Built for Exploration, Warmth, and Family Life

The Warren House stands as an innovative example of residential architecture that rethinks the relationship between ground, light, levels, and family living. By merging subterranean comfort with sculptural spatial experiences, PLOTNONPLOT Architecture Inc. created a home where curiosity, connection, and calm coexist.

The result is a refuge tailored to a growing family—one that celebrates movement, quiet moments, and the joy of discovering new experiences within everyday life.

All photographs are works of Kevin Belanger