Architecture studio Naturehumaine has used brick facades with minimal openings to shelter this home from an adjacent, noisy road in Québec, Canada.
Working with the home’s steep and narrow lakeside site, Naturehumaine aimed to limit both onlooking and noise at the home’s road-facing front, while simultaneously optimising views across the lake at the home’s rear.
To do this, the studio used brick extensively for the home’s front and side facades, forming a “brick palisade” punctured solely by a strip of clerestory windows.
Meanwhile, the rear facade, which overlooks the lake, has expansive openings that connect the home to the water.
“Working with an extremely narrow lot that is near the access road, the intention was to treat the street facade as a palisade to protect its occupants from the potential views and noises,” the studio told Dezeen.
“On the contrary the lake facade was designed in transparency with generous sliding doors and glass panes to maximize views over the water.”
Spread across two levels, the 3,160-square-foot (294-square-metre) home, named Palissade, is defined by its blocky structure composed of a concrete basement level and a brick upper level.
A metal, pyramidal roof tops the structure and is punctuated by a skylight at its centre. A detached garage sits beside the main home and is similarly constructed with brick.
At ground level, an entrance to the home is located from a discrete corridor nestled behind the front facade.
The entrance leads to an entry hall before opening up to a kitchen, dining and living space, which are lit by the rectangular skylight and flanked by a patio overlooking the lake.
In the kitchen, sliding doors framed with aluminium lead out to an external cooking area, off which a metal gate links back to the home’s entrance.
“The concept of the house is derived from the need to bring luminosity in the heart of the house,” the studio said.
“The idea is achieved by working with a basic rectangular form topped with a four sided pitched roof from which we extract a pyramidal shape from the inside core of the house, thus letting in a zenithal light within the house.”
The main bedroom is located alongside the living space and also leads out to the external patio. Adjacent to the bedroom are a walk-in wardrobe and bathroom, which is lit by the home’s clerestory windows.
Consistent throughout the interior is the use of cedar planks to clad the ceilings, which the studio coupled with the use of cherry wood for cabinetry and doors to create a “warm and cosy atmosphere”.
Stone also features in the home and was used for the kitchen island, fire place and vanity unit in the main bathroom.
An entirely wood-clad staircase leads down to the concrete basement level, which contains two guest bedrooms alongside a living room, gym and utility spaces.
Here, large glass openings break up the concrete structure at the rear, where a patio lined with concrete columns connects to the garden and adjacent lake.
Other homes recently completed in Québec include a retreat designed for “well-being and rejuvenation” nestled into a forested site and a slender, cedar-clad home perched above a lake.
The photography is by Raphaël Thibodeau.
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