The House on the Pond | A tailor-made habitat

Imagine a 540 ft pavilion^⁠2, facing a pond on family land in Estrie, which would be a holiday home open to visitors. The challenge posed to Atelier Échelle led its founders to deploy treasures of ingenuity and to transform this technical constraint into a major asset.

In her previous life in New York, designer Veronica Lemieux-Blanchard created decor for high-end hotels. What remains from this period, not so long ago, is her own way of envisioning the interior of the houses designed with her partner Mathieu, a Quebec architect she met during his studies at Harvard and who is passionate about boats. The House on the Pond, one of their recent projects, in Austin, in the Eastern Townships, benefited from their complementary expertise.

A Montreal couple entrusted him with the task of imagining a compact habitat for the pavilion he dreamed of building on the land behind the ancestral home of the owner’s parents, and facing a small lake created by them. In the 1980’s.

The regulations for a dwelling of this type only allow a footprint of 540 ft.^⁠2, everything has been thought through down to the last inch, as in a hotel room or in the cabin of a boat, to allow a family of four to spend pleasant weekends and vacations, but also to be able to accommodate least four visitors for meals with family or friends. And, more particularly, to be able to receive the grandparents and spoil them in turn.

Eye for detail

“We really like to start from a detail when we think about our projects,” emphasizes Mathieu Lemieux-Blanchard, echoing the name of the workshop that he runs with his partner. The result of this creative approach, in this pavilion in the middle of an enclave in agricultural land, is convincing. To the point that the architect and designer have since been entrusted with similar mandates in the region.

Despite the small square footage, the place breathes thanks to a clever design focused on the essentials and cutting-edge cabinetmaking work carried out by Atelier Notre-Dame. “We saw this project as a jewelry chest with drawers that open and give more space than you might think at first glance,” explains Mathieu, who drew on experience in the hotel business of its partner to articulate the architecture of the pavilion and refine its finishes.

A 216 ft mezzanine^⁠2, fitted above a terrace and which houses the master bedroom, therefore allowed the creation of a cathedral ceiling for the living room, equipped with huge windows, which gained in openness. Furniture integrated into the pavilion, making sure to take advantage of lost corners, such as low walls under a sloped roof to house bedside tables and light pieces that can be moved easily, have also contributed to making the place versatile.

Treat yourself to a good time

The pavilion was designed to be an easy family home, but also a place to rest between two trips to the lake, or a guest house if everyone’s desires or obligations should change in a few years. This minimalist layout also simplifies maintenance, a good point for a place intended for short stays which should not be weighed down by domestic tasks.

In the summer, a completely different environment is offered to the family thanks to the covered terraces on either side of the main building, which double the living space. An accordion door allows you to extend your stay with an outdoor dining room while another terrace with a sunken fire pit, accessed through a sliding door, provides a perfect meeting place for summer evenings more fresh and the desire for toasted marshmallows.

“It’s a house that contracts in winter to become a cocoon and expands in summer for outdoor activities,” Veronica notes poetically. A shower has even been provided for returning from the pond via a pontoon bordering the pavilion. Columns covered in wood warmly envelop this gallery, inspired by those of ancestral homes, from where you can keep an eye on the little ones.

Throughout the house, great care has been taken with the materials chosen for their durability. Kebony for the facade, oak for the floor or even brass door handles which will acquire a patina over the years. The intention being that the pavilion will become part of the history of this family estate by preserving the trace of the generations who will succeed one another and who will be able to sit in the shade of the trees planted one day by a grandfather in the name of his grandchildren.

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