A window on the lake is the essence of the cottage. A log home friendly and simple open on the nature and tranquility of the lake.
Built in place of the old family cottage just steps from Lake Plaisant in the Mauricie, the project is, by its simplicity, its sobriety and its finesse, an attempt to reach the essence of the cottage, a logis of wood built for the holidays and offering a real contact with nature. Wood construction, both outside and inside, it brings together under one large gable all living spaces.
Deposed inside a small clearing, without an apparent seat, on a carpet of grass, the volume is pure and light. A sober architecture, of modest size on the scale of the clearing and the lake where it fits. Entirely covered with white cedar planks, both on the roofs and on the walls. Its side façades pierced from one end to the other by three large glass strips allow interior and exterior spaces to be integrated without any real cut.
The south façade, entirely fenestrated, establishes a direct relationship between the lake and the living spaces grouped under a vast double gable, extending outside into a covered gallery. This complete transparency of the south facade allows a deep penetration of the sun in the cold season, mature trees kept between the house and the lake filter the sun in summer and keep the cottage a great privacy to boaters.
Using the clear-framed skeleton technique as the base tectonic of the cottage, where the wood studs of the walls and roof joists are cast, simply painted white, marking a particular rhythmic to the building, shade and light.
It was important to keep the chalet as a friendly place. The family cottage can accommodate up to 12 occupants for the night in two rooms on the ground floor and a large dormitory upstairs. The chalet becomes the expression of a lifestyle, a certain sweetness of life, simple and pure.