When the clients contacted Bourgeois Lechasseur for their chalet project with a mirror facade, the architects were quick to accept. But it was obvious to them that they were going to push the reflection further, in every sense of the word.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
The two chalets are located back to back, on a wooded lot in Charlevoix. Each one has a facade that seems to be made of a long mirror, where the surrounding nature is reflected.
PHOTO MAXIME BROUILLETTE, PROVIDED BY BOURGEOIS LECHASSEUR ARCHITECTES
The chalet is also discreet in winter.
If this seems to be the focal point of the project – and it is – the architects wanted to go beyond the mirror in their approach, to create an object whose all the facades are interesting. “To avoid it being just a mirror project in nature, we took care to see it as a sculpted object, which is well worked on each side,” says Olivier Bourgeois, co-founder of the Quebec firm with Régis Lechasseur. .
Discovery aspect
For example, the end of the prism, where the entrance is, seems to be sucked inwards. “It comes to create something more inviting and more intriguing, continues Olivier Bourgeois. It’s the first thing you see when you hit the trail. There is therefore an aspect of discovery, he adds, since we do not immediately see the mirror facade on arrival. “When you go around the chalet, it’s still interesting to discover it beyond just taking a picture of yourself in front of a mirror. »
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PHOTO ADRIEN WILLIAMS, PROVIDED BY BOURGEOIS LECHASSEUR ARCHITECTES
All the facades of the prism have been worked, insists the architect. For example, the end seems to have been drawn inwards, to make the entrance more inviting.
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PHOTO ADRIEN WILLIAMS, PROVIDED BY BOURGEOIS LECHASSEUR ARCHITECT
The building was designed so that there is an aspect of discovery when you walk around it. The reflective facade does not reveal itself at first glance.
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PHOTO ADRIEN WILLIAMS, PROVIDED BY BOURGEOIS LECHASSEUR ARCHITECTES
The illusion is almost total… to the point where markers have been placed on the facade to prevent birds from hitting the glass.
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To prevent birds from hurting themselves by colliding with the glass, markers have been placed. These are black dots stuck all over the glass about 6” away. “It’s approved by organizations in the United States. They put it on office towers, for example, precisely to prevent too many birds hitting the glass. »
see double
If two chalets were built, which are also offered for rent, it was because it was a request from customers – the same ones behind the famous domes of Charlevoix, also made with Bourgeois Lechasseur. With an area of approximately 850 sq.2the chalets can accommodate four to six guests each.
Located about forty meters from each other, the chalets still enjoy good privacy, especially because they have their backs to each other. To be faithful to the logic of the project, their plans are also mirrored, that is to say they are almost identical, but reversed, as if there were an axis of reflection between the two.
It looks simple like that, but it’s a bit confusing, because everything is really reversed. We have always worked on the first chalet, and there, when we enter the second, everything is upside down, and the landscape is different as well.
Olivier Bourgeois, co-founder of Bourgeois Lechasseur
True, nature also seems to have had a say in the development of the project, because even the vegetation cover that borders each building varies. “There are not necessarily the same trees,” continues the architect. On one side, it is more thinned out, with deciduous trees and very thin tree trunks, and on the other, there are more conifers. Someone could go there twice, and do the two chalets, in a slightly different setting. »
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PHOTO MAXIME BROUILLETTE, PROVIDED BY BOURGEOIS LECHASSEUR ARCHITECTES
The architects opted for raw materials, so that the occupants feel even closer to nature: concrete floors (heated), wooden ceilings… The kitchen, dark but functional, blends into the space to leave room in the open area.
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PHOTO MAXIME BROUILLETTE, PROVIDED BY BOURGEOIS LECHASSEUR ARCHITECTES
“You really have to give the most total transparency on nature to feel really immersed in it”, says Olivier Bourgeois about the floor-to-ceiling bay windows.
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PHOTO MAXIME BROUILLETTE, PROVIDED BY BOURGEOIS LECHASSEUR ARCHITECTES
On one side (the one opposite the large bay window), there are the two bedrooms and the bathroom.
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PHOTO MAXIME BROUILLETTE, PROVIDED BY BOURGEOIS LECHASSEUR ARCHITECTES
Throughout the interior, we find raw and neutral materials – concrete, wood – and openness to the outside…even in the bathroom.
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Inside, the plan has been designed so that you really feel in nature. The bedrooms are on one side and, on the other, is an open area with the living rooms, which overlook the large bay window. The use of wood for the ceilings also aims to give a warm side.
But the question remains: how to proceed so that we perceive a mirror from the outside, and a window from the inside? It’s a film in the glass that gives this effect, explains Olivier Bourgeois. “It brings a slightly pinkish tint to the interior of the chalet, but the transparency effect is really there. When you are outside and the interior lights come on in the evening, you can still see the interior quite well. This is where we understand that it is really a window, and not a completely opaque mirror. »