m y clients for this small vacation house were a classmate of mine from McGill Univer- sity School of Architecture who now practices construction law, and his wife, a design professional. The couple has one teenage son and lives in Vancouver. For several summer holidays they camped on an undeveloped piece of family property not far from Mont Tremblant in the Laurentian hills north of Montreal. They were attracted by the beauty of its lakeside setting, by warm childhood memories and by the proximity of relatives and friends. When they decided to replace their tent with something more permanent on this property, they asked me to design it for them. With their combined background and expertise in design, they could have designed the small building themselves; instead, they chose to be clients — knowledgeable, sophisticated clients who know what they want. They asked for a house that fit the property that they loved, and gave me freedom to try to do that. For me, it turned out to be an exciting, creative collaboration. The property is almost entirely a hillside, steep and comparatively inhospitable along the waterfront except for a relatively narrow peninsula that juts out into the lake. A 50-foot water setback made the peninsula unbuild- able, but a small saddle of land between the peninsula and hillside was able to accom- modate a small house with a view of the lake. The peninsula forms two very intimate bays — one to the south, another to the west. The house is 1515 ft 2 . Facing the south bay is a two-storey wood-frame section with dining room/kitchen, laundry, bathroom and a small bedroom on the ground floor. The second floor has two bedrooms and a bathroom. Facing the west bay is a one storey, post and beam-framed living room. Between the
two flanking sections, along the axis of the peninsula, is a large wedge that marks the entry and contains a two-storey stairwell. The entrance door is on the northeast end of the wedge; a wood stove sits in the centre. The stair’s second floor landing bridges the wedge and is aligned with short corridors on both levels of the second storey. The wedge also contains the chimney which juts above the adjacent rooflines the way the peninsula juts into the lake. Terrace doors open off the kitchen/dining room and living room onto a deck, level with the top of the peninsula. Both flanks are sided with stained cedar on the exterior, clear basswood on the inside, and linoleum is used as flooring. The outside of the wedge is bush-hammered concrete block masonry; inside the walls are gypsum board with a small-grained stucco finish and painted the colour of the block veneer outside. The wedge floor is slate. For the two storey wing, 2 x 4 exterior frame walls contain batt insulation in the stud cav- ity plus 3” of rigid foam insulation applied as sheathing to provide a nominal thermal resistance value of R-33. Blown insulation in the attic roof space has a nominal thermal resistance of R-50. The exterior walls and roof of the post and beam section of the house are sheathed with Structural Insulated Panels with a nominal thermal insulation resistance value of R-38. High-performance windows are valued at R- 7. The wood stove is the primary heat source when the building is occupied. Foundations are extended deep enough below the frost depth so that the building will be unaffected by frost heave if unheated. The plumbing can be drained for similar purpose. A heat recov- ery ventilation system provides a high level of indoor air quality and dedicated make-up air is provided for the wood-burning stove.
été | lac
manitou
richard white
36
on |site 13 on |site 13
housing | houses | house housing | houses | house
36
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator