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Maison de la Falaise de Gatineau
By : AGATHOM Co. Ltd
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 17th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Special Award / Architecture + Models and Renderings
Categories : Residential Building / Cottage & Country House : Gold Certification
Categories : Other categories in architecture / Concept & Unbuilt : Gold Certification
Gatineau Cliff House
La Pêche, Quebec
A remote forest meets the lip of a shear rocky cliff – providing a dreamy and dramatic site for a Québec getaway retreat just north of Ottawa, Canada. The building site is distinct, and when positioned at the edge of the cliff, a breeze is felt rising through the trees perched on the cliff face from the valley several hundred feet below.
The project is conceived to nestle into its landscape and celebrate its extraordinary shifts in terrain and ancient beauty, rather than dominating its landscape. Any ideas of rock removal or blasting to suit the design of the dwelling was forbidden. Instead, the building is tailored to suit its natural terrain. Moss covered granite outcrops create arrival moments to spring bridge crossings from: The entry sequence begins with a bridge that crosses then pierces through the house’s skin and floats through the interior. The arrival point is the main floor – the upper level of two stories that spill out onto a plateau below. The building’s floor elevation is precisely calibrated to be level with its arrival rock, allowing ease of access for aging in-place inhabitants. The main level of the house can be entirely sufficient as full living quarters should wheelchair accessibility need accommodation in the future.
Once inside, when descending to the lower floor, the building opens widely to celebrate powerful backdrops of rock face just feet away. From inside, the inhabitants can enjoy an intimate reading of the untouched rock face that drops alongside the building, providing a poetic juxtaposition to the dramatic cliff face to follow.
The house reaches out into three spoked wings – capturing distinct moments of foreground, tree canopy with deep views, various light levels, and sun patterns, providing layers of privacy. Gatineau Cliff House is shrouded with a rich skin of weathering steel both on walls and roof surface – working to quietly blend with its colourful forest setting. The raw steel provides a non-reflective matt cloak which settles into its forest calmly. The wings of the house are articulated to suit the granite bedrock shapes on the site, bending to accommodate when needed to nestle. The original ground plane was not altered to accommodate this 250 sq m building.
The structural engineering on the project plays a critical role in providing winged grace of the roof lines, without interruption of columns. The structural design is articulate in order for the finished results to have a quiet resolve – and focus the eye on spatial moves, openings and calm. Coordination of structural design also plays a special role in exacting full thermal separation from the exterior – top, bottom and sides. A continuous unbroken and robust thermal blanket of insulation is achieved in this design wrapping the project and outperforming the building code.
On its foremost wing, the main upper level terminates in the open living space –at the most intense moment of all – the shear forest cliff itself. The living room opens onto its generous outdoor deck that further floats out over the cliff’s sharp edge, cantilevering over the lip, capturing distant breezes from below.
Collaboration
