Art world: explore a minimalist home in Canada designed for an art collecting couple

Located along the Niagara Escarpment, immersed within 50 acres of forests and hills, Long House is a slim rectangular house built for a pair of art collectors inspired by the white cube gallery aesthetic.

Designed by Canadian studio +tongtong, the minimalist house with extensive glazing and plenty of walls and alcoves for the display of art, was inspired by the high-ceilinged, white-walled galleries of Marfa, Texas, where a burgeoning contemporary art scene has taken root within the desert city landscape.

Through the architecture, gallery spaces are integrated into the circulation of the home, bringing the appreciation of art into the daily routine of life.

Take an interactive tour of Long House

Entry to the house is through a north-facing gallery that opens up into a series of UV protected niches for the clients’ collection of historical Native North American art.

While minimal, +tongtong’s design isn’t without character and quirk – additional spaces for artwork organically emerge from the core form, such as the extended plinth at the base of the stair or the triangular glazed niche for the piano that juts out into woodland.

Always in conversation with its natural surroundings, Long House is half sunken into the earth – its' low-lying two-storey form with a micro agricultural green roof follows the shape of the sloping land and it is surrounded by layered terraces and a reflecting pool.

The exterior walls are clad in split cedar shakes, each hand dipped in black tar – a traditional Scandinavian waterproofing technique, sensitively chosen to complement the context of the tawny-coloured timber terraces and tree trunks.