Kariouk Architects

Hurteau-Miller Cottage

HURTEAU-MILLER COTTAGE

Kariouk Associates

Hurteau-Miller Cottage
© Photolux Studios, Christian Lalonde

LOCATION
La Pêche, Canada

YEAR
2010

CATEGORY
Houses

Hurteau-Miller Cottage
© Photolux Studios, Christian Lalonde

Text description provided by architect.

This cottage is designed for a couple with a young son and will serve as a center-point for the gatherings of a greatly extended family and will one day become the family's primary residence.

The challenge was to implement an architectural strategy that breaks down very large programmatic requirements and, as a result, the seeming bigness of the proposed home.

The spatial system therefore is conceived as a porous and open ground-floor that supports a solid, “private” volume above. All of the primary living and comm

Hurteau-Miller Cottage
© Photolux Studios, Christian Lalonde
Hurteau-Miller Cottage
© Photolux Studios, Christian Lalonde

unal functions, such as the indoor and outdoor living rooms, kitchen and eating area, and sauna open either literally or volumetrically to the surrounding lakeshore.

The master bedroom suite is also placed on the ground floor since the house is meant to be a home for a lifetime and issues of future accessibility are thus addressed.

The upper volume, a heavier wooden box clad of Western Red cedar, is cradled by the seemingly delicate armature below and houses spaces that are introverted, namely the son’s bedroom and guest sleeping areas.

Hurteau-Miller Cottage
© Photolux Studios, Christian Lalonde
Hurteau-Miller Cottage
© Photolux Studios, Christian Lalonde

This dropping of the second-floor volume into the ground-floor level is meant to create spatial interest and intimacy throughout the large, communal areas of the interior while minimizing the house’s overall size from the exterior.


Hurteau-Miller Cottage
ground floor plan
Hurteau-Miller Cottage
second floor plan

Kariouk Architects
T +1 613 5622211
Kariouk Architects
179 George St #1204, Ottawa, ON K1N 1J8, Canada