Form & Frame is a Toronto architecture practice working at the edge of restraint — civic halls, private houses, and cultural spaces drawn down to their essential structure. Less ornament. More permanence.
Seventeen years, measured in built work
A practice is its portfolio. These are the projects we return to — each one an argument for less, made permanent in concrete, stone, and light.
A 4,200 sq ft family home carved around a single concrete light well. Shortlisted for the 2025 RAIC Award of Excellence.
A 38,000 sq ft town hall in cross-laminated timber, net-zero in operation, opened on budget after a 22-month build.
An archival library wrapped in a self-shading travertine screen that cuts cooling load by 41% without mechanical assistance.
A lakeside exhibition pavilion of board-formed concrete and glass, designed to weather visibly over 100 years.
Adaptive reuse of a 1911 foundry into 26,000 sq ft of studio space, preserving 90% of the original structure.
Five courtyard homes on a single laneway, each oriented to its own private sky. AIA Honor Award, 2020.
One studio, the full arc. We carry a project from a blank site to occupancy — no handoffs, no diluted intent.
Ground-up design for residential, civic, and cultural buildings — led by a principal from concept through every detail drawing.
Site strategy, zoning analysis, and phased frameworks for campuses, districts, and multi-building estates.
Interiors drawn as architecture — millwork, light, and material specified to the millimetre, not styled after the fact.
Heritage assessment and structural reinvention that keeps what matters and removes what doesn't.
Passive-first design, embodied-carbon modelling, and net-zero strategy built into the form, not bolted on.
On-site administration from groundbreaking to handover, so the building that opens is the one we drew.
Anyone can add. We are paid to remove — to find the single move that makes a building inevitable, then resolve it completely.
Every project is drawn and defended by a named principal. You hire the hand, not the brochure.
Concrete reads as concrete, timber as timber. We don't clad one material to imitate another.
Ninety-one percent of our projects open within 5% of their approved construction budget.
We design for a hundred-year service life. The brief ends; the building stays.
“They removed three quarters of our brief and gave us a better building than the one we asked for. Five years in, it still stops people at the door.”
“A civic building, net-zero, on a public budget, opened on time. I had been told that combination wasn't possible. Form & Frame proved otherwise.”
“Most firms hand you off to a junior after the first meeting. Here the principal was on site in the rain, arguing about a reveal detail. That is why it is built right.”
Private houses from roughly 3,000 sq ft, and civic or cultural commissions with construction budgets above $4M CAD. We deliberately keep a small book of work so each project keeps a principal's full attention.
Yes. We work across Canada from Toronto and across Europe from our Lisbon studio. Roughly a third of our built work sits outside Ontario.
A typical house runs 14 to 20 months from first sketch to occupancy; a civic building, 24 to 36. We give you a realistic timeline at the outset and hold to it.
Always. A principal leads your project from concept to handover and remains your single point of contact throughout. There is no handoff to a team you have never met.
On a percentage of construction cost for full-scope commissions, or a fixed fee for defined early-stage studies. We scope and quote precisely after a first conversation about your site and brief.
We take on a limited number of projects each year. Tell us about your site and your brief, and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right practice for it.