A residence on 84 acres with a private lake, designed in collaboration with a renowned architect. Contrast is everywhere: a richly patterned oriental rug beneath a colonnade of trees, or a small handcrafted chair displayed like a sculpture, revealing an unexpected depth.
Lac du Castor Villa
Completion date
2001
Project manager
Mario Patenaude
Photos
André Doyon (indoors)
Philippe Saharof (indoors)
Scott Gilchrist (outdoors)
Thrown in among other rooms, we are surprised to find a bathroom of white marble and a kitchen fitted out in gleaming stainless steel, both so unusual in this setting.
But here the interest is in this very act of “forgetting” conventions, according to which excessive refinement would not suit the general spirit of a cottage deep in the woods. It is a shift away from the expected.
Contrast is everywhere. An elaborate oriental rug under a colonnade of trees. A small hand-made chair, placed like a sculpture in an alcove where it acquires unexpected importance.
As René Desjardins so aptly put it:
“Why should the fact that we’re sharing an environment with bears and beavers inevitably lead to a more primitive way of living?”
The most contemporary suspended fixture lighting an entirely authentic wood stove. Where we might have expected oil lamps, the YaYaHo fixture by Ingo Maurer runs through the space on a steel cord. Choose bare walls, low-key furniture and an absence of decorative objects, and filter the sunshine through industrial blinds that fall from the ceiling when needed.
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10Modesty and simplicity reign throughout, with one exception: the bookshelves in the study, in an explosive red, are a welcome relief, like explosive laughter in a conversation that has become too serious.
Collaborator: Pierre Thibault architecte