>IN HER SISTER’S VIEW
Lakeshore House enlists water views, natural light around courtyard design
Lake Ontario is part of architect Kim Smith’s design for her sibling’s Kingston home. The Wow Factor,
There was only one choice for architect Kim Smith: create the perfect home for her sister and husband when they found the perfect Lake Ontario property.
Named Lakeshore House, the one-storey, 3,580-sq.-ft. residence sits on the blustery waterfront, in the Kingston area. With walls of windows fronting the water and a sheltered courtyard in the back, it was designed to be enjoyed from both the inside and outside while harbouring residents from the elements.
“This was the second home we have designed for my sister and brother-in-law,” said Smith, a principal at the Vancouverbased firm Helliwell + Smith, Blue Sky Architecture. Her sister and brother-in-law are both doctors in Kingston.
“Both experiences have been wonderful. They have brought us closer together and better friends. This often happens with our clients — but even more so with my sister.”
The house wraps with an inner ring around the protected courtyard and a sheltered entrance.
Its roofline creates an oculuslike effect over the courtyard with its circular opening to the sky that allows for lush gardens while keeping things cosy for outdoor living.
The entryway to the house takes immediate advantage of the waterfront view — transparent glass doors provide a vista of the lake directly from the courtyard. Designed to keep the cold weather out while bringing the outdoors inside, a glass air lock at the entrance can be closed during winter months and then left open during warmer temperatures.
The main living areas — the kitchen, dining and living room, as well as the primary bedroom and ensuite — are located along the lake side of the property. A home office and guest bedroom wrap around the oval courtyard and open to a view of the garden. A hallway from the garage entrance weaves around the west side of the courtyard to the front of the house. Service rooms and two other guest bedrooms are positioned along this hallway.
Building materials include local limestone — for which Kingston is nicknamed “Limestone City” — western red cedar and a Douglas fir post-andbeam structure brought in from British Columbia.
Sustainable features include triple-pane glass windows, radiant floor heating and roof overhangs to protect from strong summer sun while allowing the sun to penetrate in the winter. A cross-ventilation design keeps the indoors cool in warm weather.
Lakeshore House took three years to design and build and was completed in 2016.
We asked architect Kim Smith a couple of questions about Lakeshore House:
How did the landscape figure into your design?
The property is south-facing on Lake Ontario. There are very strong — and often cold — southwest winds that come off the lake. This was the motivation for using the house to form a protected and sun-filled courtyard garden area on the street side.
On the lakeside of the home, a large terrace steps to a lawn that leads to steps to the limestone shoreline. Strict flood plain regulations determined the setback of the home to the lake and the height of the floor from the lake.
The courtyard is great for outdoor living. Yet it takes the place of a front yard that’s usually a part of traditional planning.
There is minimal lawn and garden at the street side of the home, with the majority of outside space and garden enclosed in the oval courtyard. By building to the front setback from the street, the driveway is shorter, which is less asphalt and less snow shovelling.
Along the lakeside, the shore is limestone shelves. A floodproof retaining wall was built to mitigate rising water levels, with limestone-slab steps to connect to a lawn and garden between the water and a stone terrace and the home.
What were your challenges with this site?
The flood plain mitigation meant that the home had a defined minimum elevation that could be built from the lake. In order to provide a home that was all single level — to allow for aging in place — and a level walkout to the courtyard and lakeside, the building is slab-on-grade, with no basement.
Some of the service rooms on the east side of the home are for storage, since there is no basement.