A couple with two young children wishes to renovate a row house dating back to the 1970s. Being part of a set of rowhouses designed uniformly, no changes were brought to the exterior appearance of the house. Contained within a space of 16′-0 ” wide by 47′-0 ” in length, the residence is organized on 4 levels including the basement. The entire layout of the rooms has been completely reconfigured according to the new needs of the clients. An existing triple-height void topped by a skylight illuminates the heart of the house.

A new staircase with a guard composed of black painted steel tubular sections emphasises the verticality of triple height space. A white wall cladded with painted wooden panels installed in a random arrangement adds a dramatic effect to the entire project. Two translucent glass plates provide luminosity to the bathrooms and punctuate the wooden wall on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The original stainless steel suspended light fixtures were painted black and their supports reconfigured more dynamically. The use of pale maple wood for the floors, concrete for the kitchen island and velvety white laminate for the cabinets, contributes to the minimalist spirit of the residence where a specific attention to detail is omnipresent.

Carried out in a residential area of the Rosemont–La-Petite-Patrie borough, the project consisted in renovating and expanding a duplex built in the 1920s that housed three dwelling units. The added storey harmonized the building with the size of the surrounding constructions.

The intervention was minimal on Dandurand Street, rather extending along the perpendicular street. In the existing section, the brick was replaced, but the original openings were mostly retained, while large angled windows were built on the addition, multiplying the views on the urban landscape. The glass and white steel volume that was added on top of the first two levels stands out through both its angular shape and its materials. On each level, spacious decks equipped with glass railings lighten volume perception. A shared deck was inserted into a breach made in the volume, which also captures light.

An athletic young couple wants to transform a fourplex to create their primary residence, while maintaining a rental unit on the first floor. The existing part of the house, dating from the 1930s, is restored on the street side, and the attached garage is restructured to match, as well as to accommodate the new outdoor terrace perched on its roof. Topped with an angular wooden structure, this volume breaks up the perpendicular volumetry of the corner building and allows gardens to nestle into its interstices.

Large bay windows overlooking the north-facing garden bring maximum light to the living areas and show off the striking colour of the stairway. As a focal point of the interior composition, the stairway brings a warm and vibrant tone to the project. The layout of this sculptural object, playing with diagonal lines, is the central dynamic element of the Canari house.

A black band defines circulation through the house, all the way to the garden. The colour accents in the bathrooms, in orange and blue tones, energize the look of these confined spaces and complete the graphic composition of the project.

• Grands Prix du Design 10e edition  – Color price
• Laureate 34th Prix Domus – Jury’s Favorite & Home Renovation from $ 350,000 to $ 1,000,000

The project is located in the Rosemont-Petite-Patrie facing the backyard of Papineau Street, a busy commercial street in Montreal. The project consists of 6 housing units each boasting a private access. Forward, the project is characterized by its simple volume, uniformly coated with a brown brick. For their variable dimensions and offset openings instill dynamism to the front. Street side, 3 parking spaces are covered by a large terrace. To maximize the contribution of light on the first floor, it was found detached from the facade and the glass walkways with railings. Expanded metal coating covers the exterior structure of the terrace. Copper, the steel cladding covering the lower levels reminds the tone of windows that give rhythm the project.

The project was carried out in an old residence built at the foot of Mount Royal around the 1860s for Dr. McCulloch, after whom the avenue would later be named. The residence was subsequently divided into two houses. The project aimed to expand one of the two divisions so the owners would have a new kitchen and an art studio.

The sharp shape of the extension is dictated by the land’s angle setbacks. Its black materials echo the nuances of the works of art made by the owner, a graphite pencil artist, and interact with the grey stones of the century-old house. Like a sculpture, the bricked ground floor acts as a base for the studio, which is covered with black zinc cladding. Vertical steel screens create intimacy on the street angle while revealing Mount Royal’s forest behind.

Inside, special attention was given to transitions in materials to foster a flowing perception of the old and new sections. The idea was to keep the original components of the house while incorporating modern elements such as the main staircase and the Russian birch integrated furniture. Discovered during the renovations, the wooden square wall is the masterpiece of the dining room. In the addition, the focus is on a central midnight-blue block that is used for storage on the kitchen side and for bicycles and skateboards on the secondary entrance side.

Finalist Grands Prix du Design 10th edition – Residential space 1600 p2 or less

The design of the Aesop store in the Mile End portrays in simple ways, the underlying theme of movement found through the heritage of the neighborhood. From the 1880’s to the 1980’s, different waves of immigrants settle in this neighbourhood as described by the documentary of Montreal filmmaker Albert Kish “Our Street was paved with gold”. The design of this Aesop store presents itself as a common, but deconstructed, structure. The store appears to be stripped to the bare bones, showing its structural “guts”. As visitors glimpse into the storefront, they are confronted at first with a familiar raw palette of materials – plaster, plywood, limestone, brass, and reclaimed wood. A monolithic demonstration sink, covered in local limestone stands as a visual anchor in the middle of the store compelling visitors to move around it in order to explore the nuances and elements of the walls. The recognizable stud wall is transformed into a plywood structure that unfolds its colors with the motion of its visitors. In front of the ever-changing colors of the walls, the amber glass bottles are placed on thin brass shelves appear to float as they seem to be timeless.

Winner of Grands Prix du Design 10e edition  – Commercial space less than 1600 sqft.

In the Rimouski region, close to the Bic National Park, the clients own of a small house located on the heights of the village that they wish to extend while retaining a trace of its presence. Their new needs lead to completely transform and enlarge the original house. Two volumes of wood and steel are juxtaposed in an L shape to the existing volume coated in brick, now containing the entry,office space and living room. The two new volumes host the kitchen and dining room on the ground floor and the bedrooms and bathrooms on the second floor. The two new overlapping boxes protrude towards the edge of the forest allowing to insert a new terrace overlooking the garden.Double height volumes flooded with natural light are thus defined at the junction of the three boxes. Organizing the inner space, they delineate picture frame onto the surrounding landscape. A color palette composed of gray, black and blue juxtaposed to cedar wood corridors create a visual and geometric continuity within the living spaces.

Finalist Grands Prix du Design 10th edition – Residential space 1600 p2 or less

The bakery ‘Au Pain Doré’ , located on the ground floor of a 3 storey building on Côte-des-Neiges, decided to do some important renovations. The challenge was to give this chain a contemporary look. ‘Au pain doré’ is inspired by the European concept of ‘bakery/café’ that combines the sale of baked good and high quality coffee where the barista is put at center stage.

The interior organization has been completely redesigned with an extension in the back creating a 1500 sqft unit. The spatial concept of the project was inspired by the lattice of wooden bread baskets. A structural wooden frame holds a series of randomized wood slats creating a lattice that opens and closes to create space for lighting and ventilation. The lattice wraps down the wall turning into shelves for the bread and pastries as well as benches and counter tops. The randomized rhythmic lattice provides a dynamism experienced as you enter the bakery.

Having bought a beautiful plot of wooded land in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, the client dreamt of building a country house that would be in perfect symbiosis with its natural environment. This rugged, sloped site came to a natural plateau just below its highest point, becoming the perfect location to erect the house.

The house is characterized by two stacked volumes; a wooden clad volume anchored into the mountain supports a cantilevering ground floor volume above. This gable roofed volume raised into the air gives the sensation that the house is floating amongst the trees. Vast views of Mount Orford and the valley below are framed by a long horizontal strip window. The kitchen and master bathroom are carved out of a black volume at the center of the house dividing living spaces from the master bedroom.

At his death, the minimalist painter Guido Molinari

left as a legacy his former atelier/residence.  Located in a former bank, the space would be used as a conservation and dissemination center for the artist’s creative work.
The exhibit space, located in the main hall of the former bank, faced two major constraints.  Having two facades completely covered by windows, it didn’t have enough display surfaces.  Also, some of the artist’s enormous paintings could only be stored within the space.  The solution was to design three movable volumes that could contain large format paintings and be used as extra display surfaces.  These storage blocks can be moved at will to create a multitude of configurations.