Our project is an example of what could have turned out badly... Designed by John Bland, former Dean of Architecture at McGill University, the residence was noteworthy, but poorly executed “touch-ups” followed by its gradual abandonment had made it an almost desperate case.
The place was of little interest to a developer (the site was worth more than the building). It had to be shown that this “brown box” could be reborn like a phoenix.... Because its demolition was imminent, restoration costs were prohibitive and the idea of redoing everything to suit “current tastes” was almost inevitable. A very North American problem...
Modernist landscape
We opted for a concept that would enhance the value of the initial project. The wood structure (original glued-laminated beam over 24m long, unprecedented in that era!) favoured an open-plan layout, a key concept of modernism.
Partitioned rooms gave way to installation of detached “planes” to create a sensation of openness to space and to the countryside. The rooms thus were perceived as planes or objects “deposited” in this open area, a reference to the experience of modern painting, in which the concept of colour planes supplanted figuration.
The windows were replaced, recalibrated or relocated to restore the residence’s status as a horizontal plane facing the landscape: an interplay between abstraction and figuration.
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