The duo first met in 2001 as architecture students at the University of Toronto. Three years later, they started their own design and development firm, Reigo & Bauer, even though they were not yet fully licensed to build anything larger than a house. In 2005, they turned their sights on 12 Cassels Avenue - a vacant residential lot with a footprint of just 84 square metres, or about the size of a one-bedroom condo. Their aim was to design and build their first home from scratch.

Every inch of the tiny house has been maximized, with six rooms and two bathrooms over three floors, in a design that includes a finished basement for added living and storage space. The stairwell discreetly zigzags its way up the middle and is capped by a skylight to draw light into the interior. But the most inventive feature is the use of glazed walls on the front and back of the house, which not only maximizes natural light, it makes the otherwise small rooms feel big and airy. The main-floor kitchen looks out onto a small garden patio that is accessible through double swing doors, while the windows in the top-floor master bedroom reach to ceiling height. Viewed from outside, the exterior front glazing extends beyond the usual point where window meets supporting walls, giving the house an unusual paper-thin look.

"We were interested in achieving a very contemporary and minimal aesthetic, white still being approachable and not too hard and austere," says Reigo. They also wanted the new build to took comfortable on a street where most of the houses date back more than a half-century, a feat accomplished by echoing the rooftop lines of the nearby homes. "We were shocked that people were generally pleased with how much the house fit in with the neighbour-hood," says Reigo. "It's the power of the pitched roof. A pitched roof registers 'house' with everyone."