The Pine Lake Cottage emphasizes affordability with an eye for efficiency. Emerging from the tear down of the previous residence, this cottage was built entirely on the preexisting foundation. In addition to being a cost effective solution this strategy also minimized the buildings impact on the surrounding natural environment.
Article source: Christopher Simmonds Architect Inc.
This project for the renovation of an existing boathouse and new 600 sq.ft. second storey guest suite is located in the Muskoka Lakes region of Ontario. Situated at the end of a narrow bay, the design of the new boathouse mediates between extended views out to the wide vista of the distant lake and the immediacy of the enclosed forested shoreline of the bay. The design provides a lens for these varied views as well as a sheltering foil to the open lake breezes and water traffic. The project called for the renovation of an existing two slip boathouse and the addition of a second storey guest suite and roof terrace.
Night View (Images Courtesy Peter Fritz Photography)
This project called for the rethinking of an 850 square-foot apartment on the seventeenth floor of a new condominium building in the city’s downtown core. The slogan employed by the developer for marketing this building championed the apartments as “…statements of modern, urban living.” This cliché of developers has come to describe small apartments that feature the very same suburban spatial logic of segregated spaces.
Images Courtesy Photolux Studio (Christian Lalonde)
The Cassie Campbell Community Center in Brampton creates a unique set of spaces for indoor and outdoor programming. Designed by Perkins+Will, the main program elements include a natatorium, indoor running track, gymnasium, and figure skating center of excellence, twinned with a community hockey rink. The program elements are expressed as a series of boldly cantilevered gull wing roofs floating above masonry walls. These stone and block elements frame and organize the surrounding landscapes and outdoor program areas, which include a children’s play area, splash pad, basketball court, and entry plaza.
Front View (Images Courtesy Lisa Logan Architectural Photography)
Perched on the edge of the Scarborough Bluffs, the dramatic views afforded by this site encompass lake and sky through the tall trunks of mature trees. The foundations of the owner’s childhood home have been reused to create a new residence that celebrates this spectacular location. This allowed us to leave the trees, some of which are growing very close to the house, untouched.
Front Façade (Image Courtesy Ben Rahn/A-Frame Inc.)
The design concept for this house is born from the interplay of different volumes that distinctly accentuate the facets of the clients’ lifestyle. All of the bedrooms and private spaces are contained within a volume clad with large slabs of creamcoloured stone, with minimal window openings. The house is organized around a central, twostorey grand foyer and space in which the clients can entertain guests. Wrapped in verticallyoriented Brazillian ipe, this space becomes a twostorey gallery and projects out into the expansive back-yard with an indoor-outdoor pool, above which a custom hand-blown bubble chandelier seems to extend the concept of water upward.