Share to

Maison de l’Île

By : Blouin Orzes architectes

GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 14th edition

Discipline : Architecture

Categories : Residential Building / Single-Family Home : Gold Certification

Often qualified as the founding site of French America and recognized for the historical quality of its built environment and coastal landscape, the Island of Orléans holds a mythical place in the collective Québécois imagination. La Maison de l’Île with its formal vocabulary, referring to traditional architecture on the island, proposes to establish a dialogue on contemporary architecture in heritage areas.

The home is situated on the banks of the St-Lawrence River at the edge of the island's agricultural lands. Its defining characteristics directly reference the architecture of first-generation homes on the Island: a direct relation to the ground, a steep-sloped roof, formal simplicity, and clean lines.

The juxtaposition, separation and staggering of the home and garage volumes underneath the large roof, articulates this cohabitation whilst preserving the readability of the home’s typical profile. This strategy permits, among others, to generate protected and generous exterior spaces in front of the entrance and on the river facing façade.

This play of translation and asymmetric composition of volumes creates, inside, uncommon spaces such as the passageway inscribed in the cantilevered volume above the river side terrace. The structural affirmation by the presence of steel beams spanning the home’s central volume and floating above the glazed bands on either side of the space permits the reading of a constructive strategy where both tradition and modernity cohabit.

Collaboration

Architect : Blouin Orzes architectes

Maison de l’Île

By : Blouin Orzes architectes

GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 14th edition

The project in images

INTÉRIEURS Magazine