The owners acquired a small house located in La Malbaie, Quebec, on a reclusive lot at the edge of a lake. For thirty years, she sheltered some hunters then became the summer house of the Sisters of Charity. The owners, city dwellers, lived there sporadically for 6 years to tame the natural environment and define their needs.
The renovation of the house proving quite expensive, it was quickly agreed to build a new building. The existing house would remain in place as an elder sister witnessed the history of the site. She would house family and visiting friends.
The new larch-lined house, the youngest, houses two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living areas. For the sake of integration, its volume was defined before the interior layout. The size is modest and the particular shape of the roof meets the demands of the owners, the senior house and the landscape. West and South side, the roof with horizontal overhang allows to keep the exterior walls down to the scale of those of the existing house. These proportions also correspond to those of the lake and the line of trees on the opposite bank. To the east and north, the roof rises to the ridge more than 7m above the ground like the surrounding trees and the spire of a church and recalls the history of the site. Its visible edges describe the volume of the living areas and the main bedroom, the only room on the floor. The pine covered with a white dye diffuses a soft light.
This project is a reflection on the integration of a building in a natural environment. It does not seek to dominate the landscape, but rather to insert itself. This volume on the scale of the nature of the site becomes an ideal frame for the life which takes place there outside as inside.
