* Residential Architecture: Berri Residence by NatureHumaine

Residential Architecture: Berri Residence by NatureHumaine: “..A couple with a passion for contemporary architecture wanted an extension to their 1940s duplex on Berri street in Montréal, Canada. Their main desire was to create a dining room that would become the heart of the house, where family discussions would take place..At the center of the new extension is the dining room just off the re-modeled kitchen on the ground floor. It has generous south-facing glazing and and a large dining table at its center. The master bedroom is located below the dining room overlooking the sunken garden. Despite the use of wood cladding, the extension has a sense of lightness and transparency due to the glass panels being pushed to their dimensional limits. The exterior finish is an olive green stained pine with an overhanging glazed volume clad in galvanized steel..”  Extensive glazing, natural light, garden views; interesting form and interior volumes..

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image: © Adrien Williams; article: ”Berri Residence / NatureHumaine” 19 Apr 2013. ArchDaily

* Residential Architecture: Cabane 217 by Bourgeois Lechasseur Architectes

Residential Architecture: Cabane 217 by Bourgeois Lechasseur Architectes: “..Cabane 217 is a project to completely redesign a home located in Ste-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Quebec, Canada. The house is located on a wooded lot bordering the river. The owner wanted to give his home new life by opening it up to its surroundings. The changes also involved completely rethinking the living areas in order to create a dialogue between the outside and the inside. The basic premise consisted of preserving some of the building’s original country character and creating a contemporary project that is in harmony with its environment. The design followed a preliminary LEGO™ model created by the owner..The steep slope of the roof was kept, but the traditional dormer windows have been transformed. One dormer opens onto the street to shyly reveal the staircase and to provide light to the home’s central space. On the side nearest the river, part of the roof has been raised to accommodate the master bedroom and ensuite bathroom. This second, much larger, dormer creates an airy, bright space. The client was thus able to keep the idea of a “tree house” and still preserve privacy with the surrounding vegetation..The screen room that stands out from the main part of the building is an addition to the original house. This room has a fireplace and is both intimate and welcoming. This contrast with the spacious rooms and the large deck leads the client into a new relationship with his environment. It provides a threshold between the inside and the outside and frames the view of the site..The inside is now much brighter with nature all around. The kitchen has been completely renovated. The wood panels and the slate floor respect the natural, warm feel of the place. A new lighter, brighter staircase leads to the upper floor. The bathroom, with its spectacular shower, opens on the master bedroom. The floor-to-ceiling windows in the bedroom give the impression of floating in the trees..The materials used on the outside integrate well into the region’s natural and built environment. The original wood siding was kept and repainted. The windows are wood like the original ones and seem to flow into the marine plywood panels that extend and define the new elements. The metal roof reflects the sun and calls to mind the traditionally inspired design of this country home..”  Extensive glazing, natural light, nature views; impressive renovation, with extension, of traditional small home..

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image: © Stéphane Groleau; article: ”Cabane 217 / Bourgeois Lechasseur Architectes” 05 Apr 2013. ArchDaily

* Residential Architecture: Cedarvale Ravine House by Drew Mandel Architects

Residential Architecture: Cedarvale Ravine House by Drew Mandel Architects: “..This house in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by Drew Mandel Architects features pale grey stone walls and an overhanging top storey..Home to a family of four, the two-storey residence sits at the edge of Cedarvale Park, a steeply sloping ravine surrounded by woodland..Drew Mandel Architects used locally quarried stone blocks in three different sizes to create irregular courses on the building’s exterior. To contrast, zinc clads the cantilevered first floor and richly coloured walnut covers a selection of surfaces inside the house..”The restrained and limited material palette avoids unnecessary ornamentation in order to focus one’s attention on the site, natural light, and movement through modulated open spaces,” say the architects..The volume of the house is broken down into modules, which step back and forth on both floors to create two patios at ground floor level and a vegetable garden on the roof..The architects explain this as a “pushing and pulling” that mediates between the residential context at the front and the woodland area at the rear. “The sculptural expression solves programmatic requirements, maximises views, provides natural light, and enhances the promenade and transition from suburban streetscape to very primal forms of nature,” they add..A glazed single-storey block at the back contains the living room and offers a view back towards the park..The overhanging first floor cantilevers out beside it and hovers above an outdoor swimming pool. To support the weight of the cantilever, the architects added a single concrete wall and a series of concealed trusses..A double-height dining room is positioned at the centre of the house and splits the first floor into two wings. A mezzanine corridor runs between..Extensive glazing, natural light, nature views; privacy; interesting form and volumetry, interior volumes, materiality..

image + article: Dezeen

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* Residential Architecture: House on Limekiln Line by Studio Moffitt

Residential Architecture: House on Limekiln Line by Studio Moffitt: “..The House on Limekiln Line sits on a 25 acre farm lot in Huron County, Ontario, Canada. The site is in constant flux due to shifting diurnal and annual conditions of weather, cultivation and occupation. The house sits lightly on the land while registering and amplifying specific conditions of this vast productive landscape: it frames expansive views of the shifting crop quilts adjacent to the house and it acts as a datum to an existing topographic shift on the site..The house is calibrated to allow views into and through the house, facilitating an interior visual spatial expansion. An extended south deck and west deck walk offer threshold spaces that extend this experiential choreography while also mediating between enclosure and exposure and extending seasonal exterior occupation of the site..The house is off-grid and utilizes a number of sustainable measures that reduce operational and embodied energy consumption. Siting and orientation facilitate passive heating and cooling. A generous south deck overhang blocks summer sun while allowing winter sun to heat the concrete thermal mass floor. Evenly distributed operable windows facilitate summer cross-ventilation and stack effect heat purging. Triple glazed windows, a highly insulated envelope detailed to reduce thermal bridging, and the use of high efficiency appliances ensure that energy consumption required to service the house is low..The house offers back to the cultural landscape in which it sits. The architectural language of the exterior, a mono­lithic galvanized steel shed, is informed by the local agricultural vernacular to ensure visual coherence within the land­scape and to facilitate construction with locally available and sourced materials. As a design-build project, construc­tion was completed largely by local farmers familiar with agricultural building practices. The rich dialogue with local craftsman ensured that the house is rooted in the building practices and conventions of context while also offering the community exposure to innovative resource and energy-conserving construction practices..The interior of the 85 sqm house is composed of a core of service spaces floating within the shed shell. Carefully calibrated views into and through this core ensure that, despite its limited footprint, the house is visually expansive. This experiential choreography, along with careful siting, with crops growing to enclosure, allow the house to act as a place of observation, a space that defers to and reflects back the annually and diurnally shifting landscape beyond. Creating a dialogue with and respect for the local culture and landscape encourages a sense of stewardship towards the larger ecological and environmental processes of the vast agricultural landscape in which the house sits..”  Interesting contemporary take on vernacular form and materials; interesting fenestration and interior volumes; sustainability..

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image: © Shai Gil; article: ”House on Limekiln Line / Studio Moffitt” 03 Jan 2013. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/314277&gt;