Maple Residence
Mount Saint-Bruno, QC
The original residence, built in the 1990s, is a Canadian cottage clad in stone and brick. Without seeking imitation, the intervention adopts a respectful and coherent approach, extending the home’s traditional character while infusing it with a contemporary architectural language. New solid walls, composed of durable and textured materials, reinterpret the robustness of the existing masonry, establishing a subtle dialogue between memory and the present.
Anchored to the main volume, the extension draws inspiration from the domestic palette of the neighborhood, wood, brick, and stone, rooting itself naturally within the familiar landscape of the street. This thickened envelope shelters the new kitchen, the heart of the project, and is expressed through a volumetric extrusion toward the garden, opened by large, glazed openings that frame views of the surrounding nature. The double-pitched roof, crowning a cathedral ceiling, integrates harmoniously into the existing composition while affirming its own distinct identity.
By engaging with the site’s topography and the levels of the original house, the extension descends gently into the landscape, offering generous ceiling heights and abundant natural light. Lateral views and a roof skylight transform the space into a luminous enclosure open to nature, a place for gathering and sharing, living in rhythm with the seasons and the passage of time.
Architecturally, the project seeks to clarify the volumes shaped by the different phases of the house’s evolution. Fragmented rooflines reveal these transformations, while their contemporary reinterpretation brings unity to the whole. The reconfiguration of the kitchen and the addition of the rear space create an opportunity to orchestrate a sequence of spatial transitions, shifts in floor levels and ceiling heights, cross views, and varied vertical planes through which light moves with precision. The connection to the outdoors is intensified, making the experience immersive, calming, and deeply sensory.
To link the different construction periods, the existing brickwork and that of the addition were unified through a breathable mineral tint, allowing both masonry and mortar to retain their authenticity while harmonizing the overall composition. As a result, the house transforms with the seasons, luminous against summer greenery, warm amid autumn’s golden foliage, then quiet and restrained in winter, almost dissolving into the whiteness of the landscape.
Marked by simplicityandprecision, this family renovation highlights light, materiality, and the dialogue between old and new, revealing an architecture that is timeless, rooted, and sensitive.
