Toronto Architect Completes Hemlock House, a Weekend Home in Rural Ontario
Toronto architect Brian O'Brian has completed Hemlock House, a weekend home on a 72-acre (29-hectare) property in Markdale, a rural community in Ontario, a province in eastern Canada. Dezeen reported on the building on 4 November 2026.
The project did not start as a new house. The owners first planned to renovate an old farmhouse. The plan changed, and the design became a full replacement of a small farmhouse built in the 1930s.
The new house covers 3,250 square feet (302 square metres). It is made of two parts: a long, bar-shaped block and a smaller box attached to one end. The bar spans two levels and holds a principal suite (the main bedroom suite), a secondary suite, and two bedrooms that share a bathroom. The box holds the kitchen, the dining area and the living room.
The outside is built from contrasting materials. The bar has a sloped roof clad in metal. The attached box has an angled roof covered with greenery. On the north side, a slanted wall of corrugated metal, the ridged sheet metal used on barns, runs along the building and has three windows. The south side faces patios and a swimming pool. It has siding made from hemlock, a type of wood, and a large amount of glass.
The site is flat and surrounded by woods and farmland. Brian O'Brian's practice, WORKS OFFICE, lists the house as a single-family project and gives it the number 196. WORKS OFFICE says the house was completed in 2025, and the practice's full project title is Hemlock House in a Steel Shed behind a Wood Barn.
The name describes the building well. A steel-framed structure sits behind a wooden barn, and the two forms sit side by side on the farm. For a family looking for a country retreat, the result is a house with separate sleeping areas, a shared living space and a view over the fields.
