Composed of a raw steel veil enveloping two legs with rounded corners the bench by naturehumaine is timeless. The use of raw steel as a manufacturing material gives the bench its robustness and durability. The steel gives the bench a neutral tone, evolving without distorting the space in which is integreted. Available on request for special dimensions and colors....
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Located a stone’s throw from Beaubien station, the project of eight housing units is located on a plot of land with a small duplex whose architecture is typical of the Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie neighbourhood. Adjacent to the project is the Morin Residence, an imposing heritage building that belonged to the Petites Franciscaines de Marie. The design challenge consisted in integrating the existing duplex while maintaining a human scale with the surrounding built environment, densifying the entire plot at the same time. The new layout in a «T» shape allows a clearance between the building and the lateral limits of the proprety resulting in two adjoining gardens. In addition, the mezzanine, with its «L» shape, allows multiple terraces to be laid out around its perimeter to minimize the shade cast on the neighboring buildings. On the front facade, the regularity of the composition and the openings separated by pillars is inspired by the...
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Located in an heritage area, near Molson Park in the heart of the Rosemont Petite Patrie borough in Montreal, the project is located on two adjoining plots of land. One of which is vacant and the other occupied by an existing two-storey duplex dating from the 1920s. The challenge was therefore to implement two separate projects on these two interconnected lots; not only by conserving the duplex, but also by infusing the project with a language of unity. Three new dwellings are then proposed on the vacant lot, while an additional dwelling is added on top of the existing duplex. The two new constructions provide a total of six dwellings that spread over three floors with mezzanines and basements. The living areas of the apartments vary between 950 sqft and 2150 sqft including two or three bedrooms depending on the unit. Confronted with the strict heritage requirements dictated by the municipality, the project...
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Following the arrival of a 2nd child, the clients decided to acquire a new 2-storey semi-detached house in the borough of Outremont in Montreal. The young family of 2 children therefore wishes to undertake a complete renovation of this Tudor-style house dating from the 1930s. Located on a 4250 square foot lot, the area of the house is 1250 square feet per floor. Originally planned on a traditional subdivision of the space, the lengthy house has a series of closed rooms limiting the entry of natural light. Lacking insulation in its exterior walls, it was decided for energy saving reasons to build new insulated partitions around the perimeter of the house. Combined with new needs from the clients, this resulted in an important reconfiguration of many interior divisions. Above all, the clients wished to decompartmentalize the existing spaces in order to create visual openings from the front to the back of...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Naturehumaine's office is moving into a century-old building on the corner of Gilford Street, in the square left by Mr. Jiji, the emblematic shoemaker of the neighbourhood who retired. The project aims to restore the building's heritage features and preserve the soul of a local business while giving it a contemporary touch. The atelier is set up on 2 levels; on the ground floor is the main work area and the meeting room. The basement becomes a kitchen, dining room, material library and archive area. The major intervention was to renovate the former inner courtyard on the lateral side, in order to install the main entrance of the office. This new space serves as a transition threshold before entering the work-space. The entrance is largely glazed and also incorporates a few shelves used to display architectural models. At the back, the meeting room is concealed by a striated glass panel, creating a...
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La Doyenne is a renovation and the expansion project of a Victorian house built in 1887, a few steps away from Square Saint-Louis in Montreal. In a high-density built environment characteristic of the Plateau Mont Royal, the main challenge to meet the desire of its new occupants was to design an extension in the back yard preserving their privacy from the side and rear buildings. The project's singularity comes from the integration of multiple floor level variations. One enters the house through the living room, located half a level above the street, to reach the backyard, slightly recessed into the garden. This intervention aims to create a height offset in relation to the level of the neighboring terraces while reinforcing the verticality of the interior volumes. The proportions of the dining room and kitchen are then perceived as double height spaces. The exterior envelope of the house integrates several devices aimed at...
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