The house “Les Courcelles” is inserted in a block characterized mainly by brick facades with irregular alignments and simple cornices with linear ornamentations. Also typical are the irregular and asymmetrical layout of the openings in the facade and punctuated with the presence of a series of carriage porches due to the absence of service alleys at rear end of the lots.

 

The invested site was originally composed of two unified lots. Two principles therefore guided the design of the project: the dual character of the site with these two lots and the typology of the courtyard we call “Courcelle” defined as a small courtyard, a gap between two spaces or a small garden.

 

The project sought to fit discreetly into the urban fabric while respecting the proportions, the scale and the rhythm of the neighbouring buildings on the street and within the immediate neighbourhood.

 

Imposed by the city regulations, a contrasting materiality distinguishes the two volumes on the street side: a brown clay brick covers the new portion of the project building, while a grey Saint-Marc stone dresses the existing building while preserving the proportions of the volume and openings as well as the tripartite division of the original facade.  The new incorporated carriage porche defines on the other hand the alignments of the overall fenestration punctuating both new facades.

 

Inside, the spaces are distributed around the 6 “Courcelles” developing on each level of the house from the basement level up to the mezzanine level:

A planted English courtyard bringing natural light to the basement spaces defines a first “Courcelle”(exterior). A second “Courcelle”(interior) used as a service courtyard connects the garden side and the street through a carriage porche. A third “Courcelle” (interior) opens up as an atrium within the heart of the house containing the dining room and the vertical stairway. A fourth  “Courcelle” (interior) is defined by footbridge over lit by a 50-foot linear skylight. A fifth “Courcelle” (exterior) defines a private “u” shape terrace delimited by 3 exterior walls overlooking the garden below. And a sixth  “Courcelle” (exterior) embedded within the sloped roof structure is finally accessible from the office space on the mezzanine level allowing full intimacy with respect to the nearby neighbours.

The project is located on 6th Avenue in the Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie borough in Montreal. Starting from a two-story duplex built in the 1930s, the project consists of a complete renovation of the building into a single-family house with the addition of a mezzanine. The young family of 3 children, whose parents are passionate about architecture, wants to live in an urban and contemporary home that is organized around excentric and atypical living spaces.

On the ground floor, the living spaces are distributed in an open area giving way to a sculptural staircase that unfolds vertically over three floors up to the mezzanine. All the spaces in the house are thus organized around the periphery of the staircase, which becomes the central entity of the project.  Upstairs, the parental bedroom is located away from the children’s bedrooms by the fault line in which the staircase majestically unfolds. On the mezzanine, this same void is capped by a generous skylight that provides soft and diffused light. The angular and sculptural cuts that shape the perimeter of the skylight provide an abundant supply of light.

The staircase, which by its articulation can recall the game of snakes and ladders, is fashioned from raw steel plates. Imposing, phantasmagorical, the staircase with its crossing of flights enlivens the space and personalizes the entire house. An analogy comes to mind with the famous black and white lithograph of the Endless Staircase by Dutch artist Escher where optical illusions are generated by rigged perspectives and impossible constructions.

Remaining in tones of and black and white, the rear facade of the house is made of charred wood siding, vertical white painted pine slats and raw fiber cement panels. A rounded overhanging volume that houses the master bedroom protects a portion of the ground floor terrace from the elements. This east-facing projection volume brings morning light to its occupants while creating a soft gradient of light on its rounded shapes.

The result as a whole is a unique house that bluntly explores the creative limits of a daring architectural gesture, while offering its occupants a stimulating and unusual place to live.

 

 

GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN 15th edition – Stairs – Certification Or

GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN 15th edition – Residential Building / Private House ≤ 2 000 pi2 – Certification Or

The client wished to have the architect conceive a compact second home immersed in a woody lot in front of Mount Orford, in the Eastern Townships. The one-acre lot, characterized by a hilly landscape, is part of a housing development dating back to the 1970s. At its highest point, the property is topped with a bedrock on which it is decided to strongly anchor the new construction.

 

The client’s functional needs are strategically distributed inside two independent volumes connected by a walkway forming a breach through the house. The main volume hosts the living and sleeping spaces, while the second volume contains functional areas such as a workshop and a guest bedroom/loft with its own bathroom. This physical distinction of both elements was a desire of the client in order to preserve each other’s privacy.

 

The orientation of the house on its site was mainly dictated by the desired view of the Mount-Orford. The living room, the dining room and the kitchen are facing the mountain located on the North side of the lot. The viewpoints are treated both as picture frames onto the nature and as wide panoramic glazed apertures overlooking the undulating landscape profile. The position of the house at the edge of the sloping lot magnifies the view as well as creating a floating sensation for the inhabitants.

 

Combining the desire for both a contemporary expression and inspiration from traditional architecture, the volume of the house adopts a gabled roof combined with sleek details such as the absence of roof projections, a mullion-less glazed corner with silicone joints and frameless window openings. Inside the house, white painted walls and ceilings, diamond polished concrete floor, lack of conventional baseboards are all minimalist characteristics reinforcing the simplicity and purity of the space.

 

Formally, the house is kept to its most elementary shape. The two buildings entities are divided by a six-foot wide exterior passage cladded in the same wood as the rest of the envelope. The overall impression gives the illusion that a natural phenomenon has split an initial entity into two distinct parts. The result is a gap that provides direct access to both volumes and to the deck on the southeast facade. Mostly, this passage offers a dramatic perspective framing the landscape behind the house.

 

The rooms find themselves logically divided inside the home. The main entrance is located within a breach, in the center of the volume, at the intersection of the two corridors; one in the axis of Mount-Orford, leading to the living areas and the other being parallel to the exterior passage provides access to the two bedrooms and a water closet.

 

As a result, an aura of simplicity and tranquility is induced from this dwelling, leaving room for the contemplation of the surrounding natural landscape.

 

– GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN 15th Edition – Architecture – Grand prix

The Quesnel Apartment project consists in the renovation of the ground floor apartment of a 1920’s five-unit plex located in the Little Burgundy borough, in Montreal. The family living in the apartment wished to open up the rather dark living spaces in order to maximize the natural light in the heart of the home while establishing a more direct and spontaneous relationship with the backyard.

 

The layout was reconfigured around the primary need to open the apartment from front to back while maintaining the existing wall pattern as much as possible. This results in the arrangement of closed rooms on one side and a string of open living spaces on the other, all separated by a central corridor. The intervention tends to preserve the original character and several existing decorative elements to draw subtle inspiration from them: whether it is through the curves of an arch, the fluting of the columns and cast iron radiators or the colored stained glass doors.

 

A new closet is first inserted within the existing hallway announcing the nature of the new intervention further ahead in the apartment. The green water shade influenced by the colors in the stained glass and the ceramics found in the existing vestibule becomes one of the key elements of the overall architectural concept.

 

Inspired by the rounded arch and richly ornamented columns found both in the existing living and dining room, a claustra composed of vertical white painted wood flutes acts as an intimate interface with respect to the new kitchen. This semi opaque screen filters the natural light and delimits the dining room while maintaining a desired visual connection with the kitchen. Creating a playful vertical texture on the wall with it’s equally spaced and rounded wood slats; the claustra endues an undulating movement to the space on a rounded wall and ceiling.

 

On the opposite of the dining area and new staircase, the kitchen cabinetwork unfolds in the space into a rather playful organisation revolving around the island-peninsula. The use of curved elements in the kitchen allows a fluidity of movement and comfort proper for this family with two dynamic young children.

 

In the bathroom, the combination of different forms and shades of white ceramic tiles brightens the room and compensates for its absence of natural light. The intervention relies on a variation of textures and the integration of rounded geometry evoking the character and atmosphere of the existing apartment. The restored clawfoot bathtub and the new brass light fixtures all contribute to create an historical dialogue with the original architecture of the building.

 

As a result, the renovation blends with harmony and playfulness, the existing charm of the original apartment with the newly contemporary and inventive intervention.

 

GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN 15th edition – Residence / Residential Space ≤ 1,600 sq. ft – Certification Or

GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN 15th edition – Color – Certification Argent

The project is located on a steep lot on the shores of Lake Memphremagog, not far from the St-Benoit-du-Lac monks’ abbey.

The owners wish to create on this large wooded lot, a home that reflects their lifestyle: dynamic, welcoming and friendly. They see their house as a contemporary and warm place for gatherings with friends.

 

Access to the property is through an entryway overlooking the house and offering a peek onto the lake further down below. This bird’s eye view demonstrates the visual importance to the geometry of the roof most perceived from the approach.

The chalet is composed of three volumes topped by sculptural roofs with diagonal ridge. At each high point of the ridge, a polygonal skylight culminates as a result of the roof geometry. These east-facing skylights provide natural light to the living spaces, workshop and master bathroom all facing the lake to the west.

The house is inspired by the architectural principles applied to churches; large volumes with vertical proportions lit by zenithal light. The expansion of the St-Benoît Abbey designed by Dan Hanganu, was a source of inspiration both for the attention to details and mostly in regard of the treatment of natural light in the double-height volumes.

Monochromatic, the envelope of the three volumes of the main floor is made of pre-aged wood cladding topped with a stainless steel roof; a raw and durable material to which the patina of time will give a matte and uniform appearance to all the elements, thus harmonizing the whole.

 

From the lake, the corten steel base, with its tones of rust and brown, blends into the roughness of the hemlock trees, giving the impression that the house is suspended in the forest.

On the main floor of the house, the volumes with cathedral roofs shelter 3 functional groupings. The first volume houses the living spaces, the second houses the workshop and the parking lot, and the last contains the night spaces. At the heart of the living space is the central three-sided steel-clad foyer, which faces the kitchen, dining room and living room. Monumental, it is suspended from the structure and derives its angular geometry from the diagonals formed by the roof slopes.

 

At the meeting point of the three volumes is the functional core coupled with the staircase leading to the lower level, partly embedded in the slope of the site. Partially recessed in the slope, this one hosts in a row the guest rooms, all positioned so as to benefit from a direct view and access to the lake a few meters lower. Each room has a large panoramic window overlooking the lake, as well as a direct entrance from the terrace along the base. Opaque, the access doors are hidden in the regular rhythm of the corten steel panels. This wall also makes it possible to discreetly integrate the bathroom windows behind perforated steel panels.

The materiality of the envelope finds an echo in the interior design choices of the house, where a palette of timeless materials is mixed; concrete floors, ceilings adorned with wood, as well as in the integrated furniture elements made of wood and raw or stainless steel.

 

Beyond the choice of noble materials guided by the project’s desire for durability, the house integrates numerous elements aimed at optimizing energy consumption such as a geothermal underfloor heating system, insulation that exceeds code requirements, charging stations for electric vehicles and a choice of energy-efficient lighting systems.

 

Thus, the variations and angular geometry make each space in the house unique, each viewpoint dynamic, while blurring the perception of its scale.

 

GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN 14th Edition – Architecture – Grand prix international

GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN 14th Edition – Architecture – Platinum award

AZ AWARD – finalist 2021 – Architecture residential, Single Family

OAQ’s Architecture Excellence Price – finalist 2021

WOLF/SUBZERO KITCHEN DESIGN CONTEST 2019-2021 – Contemporary – 3rd place