Collingwood chalet a ski hill haven
Inspired by iconic barn styles, architects design home with relaxed yet refined big spaces
Imagine the ease of skiing off your back deck to the chairlift, and the hill, right next door. Then, at the end of the day, gliding back to your 4,650square-foot chalet that’s built for family, friends — and then some.
That’s how one family of six spends their winters in Collingwood, Ont., at the base of the Alpine Ski Club. The enormous, double-height residence has a jaw-dropping, three-sided, two-storey, cantilevered fireplace that seems to float from the sky. Considered their second home, the family says it is “well-used and happily abused,” and often hosts mealtime crowds of 20 hungry souls.
Kitchen, dining and living rooms are on the main floor, as well as a mud room off the garage. The master suite, with an ensuite and study, is also on the first floor and faces the ski hill.
The lower level has a large recreation room, guest bedroom with ensuite, as well as a spa area with sauna, steam shower and a change room with a long cedar bench. The spa zone leads up to a hot tub deck.
Up on the second floor, the four kids’ bedrooms each have peaked ceilings and share two ensuite bathrooms. An interior balcony overlooks the loft-height, open-concept living area below.
The wood-frame structure, completed in 2009, has a western red cedar exterior with limestone base and copper roof.
Inside, white oak hardwood and concrete have been used for flooring that also includes radiant heating. Triple-glazed windows and highperformance insulation maximize energy use.
Architects Robert Kastelic and Kelly Buffey, of AtelierKastelicBuffey, AKB Inc., in Toronto, answer a few questions about the big chalet: What inspired the design?
Buffey: The owners were set on using exterior cedar, with the intention of letting it grey naturally — they wanted the chalet to be low maintenance . . . This influenced our design as we looked to the local vernacular for inspiration of an authentic wood building type: the barn. Iconic in its formal simplicity, we adapted the barn typology to suit the clients, to be sensitive to the contextual property site and to layer it with our own architectural intent. The fireplace is stunning — how was it built, and with what materials?
Kastelic: The fireplace is structurally cantilevered with reinforced concrete. It is wood burning and three-sided, with a very large opening. It is clad in honed Indiana limestone, with blackened steel detailing and a poured-in-place concrete hearth.
Buffey: The clients were very clear from the start about the fireplace being the main feature. We designated it to be a strong visual element that would be appreciated from all the open areas. By placing the fireplace between the sunken living room and the elevated dining room, it serves as an architectural divider to help define the open-concept space while still allowing it to feel open and airy. The flue runs up the double height, which is dramatic. Explain the use of the large barn door?
Buffey: The barn door was designed as a secondary feature element in the living room. It conceals the mud room closest to the ski hill from the living room. Local reclaimed barnboard was used to reference the conceptual inspiration for the chalet, while it also provides texture and contrast to an otherwise refined interior. With so many windows, how did you also design for privacy?
Buffey: We used smaller windows in private spaces and large expanses of glass were constrained to the public spaces where privacy is less of a concern. Nevertheless, the lower windows here are outfitted with mesh roller blinds for privacy and the upper windows are left exposed since it is a double-height space.