Architecture Wednesday: Chemin Bord du Lac

This 200 year old Quebec stone house once belonged to the Hudson Bay Company. And once upon a time the main entrance faced the river where the old road was situated. But then a new road was built out back and so the back became the front and the front became the back.

Then the new owners took over the turned-around-house and needed room for themselves, their kids, and their parents so a new addition was needed.

But would they try to match the old house and just make it something new?

Well, since the old part of the house would provide bedrooms for the kids and the grandparents, with the new part housing a master suite for Mom and Dad, the architects came up with the idea of drawing a parallel between the multi-generational component of the residents and the fact that a contemporary project would be built alongside a historical house.

In this manner, the design expresses the passage of time. The strategy defined itself as a contemporary project contrasting the existing stone house, yet having an obvious relationship to the ancestral home. This idea extended to the way the spaces are defined, as two double height living rooms are at opposite ends, one in each volume, linked by a path highlighted by a bridge linking the old house to the new volume.

It's been turned around and added onto, but two hundred years later it's still a family home.

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