We were faced with the challenge of designing a contemporary single-family home in the middle of suburbia, amidst a sea of Victorian-inspired houses. The client purchased a vacant lot in Sorel, a suburb of Montreal, to be close to her family. She imagined a house that would stand out from its surroundings.

The form of the house was created by offsetting 2 rectangular bars in plan, bridging over them with a gable roof and chamfering the corners. These chamfered cuts in the roof both create dynamic angular perspectives and create intimate covered exterior spaces such as the front entry and the screened-in porch. A small footprint was used on a generous sized site, leaving the existing trees undisturbed. The house was oriented perpendicular to the road, creating a semi-private wooded garden on the north side of the house. Southern light is brought in by two majestic skylights positioned at the center of the house. An angular yellow volume dividing the two skylights both warms the light, and diverts its direction.