A house hidden in the hills
SIMPLE RECTANGULAR HOME was built low to blend in with the wooded Morin Heights landscape
The sun’s movement across winter and summer skies is used with audacity and style at a simple rectangular house clad in untreated Eastern cedar, nestled in the wooded hillside near Morin Heights.
Floor-to-ceiling windows and under-heated polished concrete floors are just two of the elements in play at Blue Hills House, designed by Yannick Laurin and his team at La SHED architecture to lie nearly unseen on a one-hectare plot of land.
“The house, which is 100 feet long, was made very low to integrate it into the landscape, less visible to the eye,” said Laurin, who took great care to protect the existing flora while the house was being built. “In time, the exterior walls will turn a light grey, like the bark of the trees. And we covered the roof with flat rocks, with the same tones as the stones on the landscape.”
Whatever the season, this 2,300-square-foot house has a beneficial relationship with the sun, mainly because the architect oriented the windows facing south, and placed them inside boxes, or alcoves, about one metre deep. When the winter sun traverses low across the sky, Laurin said, the windows still capture its light; in summer when the sun is higher, the boxes protect the interior from its hot rays. “The boxes are so deep that on a rainy day, you can keep the windows open.”
Like the interior of the house, those boxes are painted white, to connect them to the interior and separate them from the vertical cedar cladding, itself a reflection of the verticality of the forest. And while the effect from the exterior is a building that sits unobtrusively in the environment, from the inside the house seems completely open to the changing seasons and the natural world that surrounds it.
The design of the house also incorporates a passive system through the concrete slab flooring, heated with a water circuit.
“During winter, the low sun gets in through the windows and heats the slabs so during the night it radiates the heat,” Laurin said. “And during the summer, because the windows are offset inside the house, the sun is higher and doesn’t hit the windows, so the interior stays cool.
“We were there in winter when it was minus-3 outside, and though the heating system wasn’t functioning, it was hot,” he said. In summer, exterior openings are enclosed with removable screens, creating screened verandas much needed in the Laurentians.
The six-inch cedar boards, placed vertically on the exterior, are mimicked inside the home by the white-painted raw poplar planks, also used vertically. The painted wood trim and blue notes in the decor give the house a simple, fresh appeal.
“We were looking for a certain ambience,” Laurin said.
“Our client, who lives in Montreal, always wanted a house on the seashore, like the houses in Maine — but they bought land in the Laurentians.”
The long rectangle is effectively designed with private spaces at both ends, public spaces in the middle. At one end of the house, the master bedroom is connected to its ensuite bathroom via a walk-through wardrobe and to the outdoors with an airy terrasse. A built-in ledge behind the white lacquered bed is just wide enough for small artworks and objets trouvés.
The light-filled bathroom is further brightened with white marble walls and flooring, a common Carerra marble often used for thresholds or bakery countertops, cut into oversized squares. The custom floating cabinetry with expansive mirror is trimmed with white oak while the freestanding tub affords a luxurious hot bath on a winter’s day.
At the other end of the house, the family’s two daughters have their own bedrooms connected to the main area through a family room that effectively gives them their own play and entertainment area. Here, a dark grey couch with lots of patterned pillows is brightened with Bella coffee tables made by Hay, a Danish design studio.
Two sides of the corridor, between the children’s area and the public space, house a long computer workstation, as well as a laundry room and bathroom.
That public area is built in the interior of the rectangle, traversed by an open hall leading to the private spaces, and centred with two islands, one focused on cooking and dining, the other on the living space. In order to form a coherent vista, despite fulfilling entirely different needs, the designers made use of the use of white wood throughout, and designed the two islands to offer their distinctive uses.
On the kitchen side, the ash countertop holds an under- mounted sink on the work side, treated to make it water repellent.
Beyond its work side, the island is overhung to form a lunch counter designed, says Laurin, in the same language as the kitchen itself, and trimmed with white painted poplar planks.
The Wishbone stools are designed by the Danish firm, Carl Hansen & Son.
Along the outside wall, the oversized range is framed by white marble countertops. Along the opposite wall, the designers created a floor-to ceiling lacquered wood pantry with flush mounted doors that surround the stainless steel fridge.
Beyond the kitchen island, in the glass walled dining area, a sisal rug warms the floor.
Under a see-through pendant light, a contemporary style trestle table, in pale ash, is ringed with white-painted Navy chairs by Emeco.
On the living room side, the island now functions as a library. At this end, design offers both privacy and atmosphere, as a contemporary fireplace, open shelves and glass walls separate this area from the master suite.
White facing couches in the living area are brightened by a blue striped rug and many blue-patterned pillows.
Because the family loves winter sports, the team created another detail that would add function to the home’s simple grace. At the entrance, a large mud room was designed with a stainless steel grill embedded in the floor.
“In this way,” Laurin said, “they can brush all the snow off boots and coats, which then melts right through to a drain outside the house.
“It’s really adapted to the climate and the style of living there.”
La SHED architecture has a storefront boutique at 68 Rachel St. E., with its workshop visible from the street. The partners have done it this way to encourage what they call a new type of architectural relationship, where, they say: “to call an architect would scarcely be stranger than hiring a webmaster – a relationship where conceiving your own living space would neither be a luxury nor would it be utopic.”
The website is at www. lashedarchitecture.com