Estrade Residence / MU Architecture

Architects: MU Architecture
Area: 334.5 m² (3,600 ft²)
Year: 2016
Photography: Ulysse Lemerise Bouchard
Contractor: Paul Lalonde et fils
Project Team: Jean-Sébastien Herr, Charles Côté, Jean-Philippe Bellemare, Pierre-Alexandre Rhéaume, Floriane Deléglise
City: Saint-Adolphe-d’Howard
Country: Canada

Estrade Residence, a residential building designed by MU Architecture in Quebec, highlights its unique topography and environment. Located by Lac de la Cabane in St-Adolphe d’Howard, the house blends with its surroundings through staggered volumes and terraces. The project emphasizes minimalism, natural materials, and seamless indoor-outdoor transitions, offering a balance of conviviality and intimacy. Completed in 2016, the residence showcases a harmonious dialogue between architecture and nature.

Located in the verdant Laurentians in Quebec, the Estrade Residence discreetly reveals itself on the shores of Lac de la Cabane in St-Adolphe d’Howard.

MU Architecture, studying the steep and rocky topography, highlighted the site’s peculiarities with a captivating architectural intervention. The design aimed to harmonize the house with its environment.

The project’s singular topography forms a rocky crest that plunges into the lake. To create a discovery path, animated volumes anchor, skirt, or levitate on this uneven terrain. Their staggered and superimposed layout generates terraces that embrace the site, creating a dialogue between architecture and the wild landscape.

Long walls of natural stones appear to emerge from the ground, projecting towards the landscape. These walls protect the ground floor apartments and give users direct access to the land below. Rocks extracted during excavation were reused in the landscaping, enhancing the architectural narrative.

Discreet and intriguing with its blind masses, the Estrade Residence reveals itself volume by volume. A wide recess under a floating cube invites entry. From the entrance, an aerial staircase welcomes visitors into a luminous space. Precisely aligned large openings connect all levels with asymmetric flights. The absence of columns and levitating glass railings impart a sense of lightness. Minimalism and attention to detail bring purity and comfort to the residence. Each corridor leads to a luminous opening, unveiling a more complex residence than initially perceived. The spaces offer both conviviality and intimacy through varied atmospheres at each level.

At ground floor level, the open space offers breathtaking lake views. Bathed in natural light, the main floor ends with a veranda extending the kitchen outside. This large volume stretches perpendicularly to the natural ridge, maximizing the panorama over 18.3 meter (60 feet) in length. The black ash kitchen and integrated furniture contrast with the white walls, breaking the monochrome. A double-sided fireplace accentuates the warm feel. Natural wood floors and the terrace ensure a seamless transition from interior to exterior. The main volume, clad in natural cedar, forms the project’s heart, bringing the family together and transitioning between the children’s spaces below and the parental suite above.

At the top, a black cedar mass overlooks the entrance and dominates the surroundings, housing the master’s apartment with a bathroom and large walk-in.

The Estrade residence’s volumetric and vernacular aspects, combined with its materiality, demonstrate architectural writing that harmonizes with the environment. This tripartite composition, spread over several levels, blends with nature throughout the seasons. The articulation of its areas within its masses integrates the house gently, reducing the impact of its 334.5 m² (3,600 ft²). Its spatial quality, comfort, and sense of well-being reflect the tranquility of the location.