Ten years ago, architect Malcolm Wildeboer stood on a remote plot of land in Ontario, looking out over the calm waters of a tree-ringed lake. Surrounded by hemlocks, with an open blue sky above him, he homed in on an ideal location for his client’s future house. Near the waterfront, with the potential for lake views from every room—yet secluded from neighbors’ sight lines—the spot had a natural clearing where Wildeboer envisioned a clean-lined contemporary structure built with minimal disturbance to the surrounding landscape.
“There’s an incredible specimen forest of hemlock,” says Wildeboer, cofounder of Ottawa’s Vandenberg & Wildeboer Architects, referring to the position near the lake. “The client and I share a deep passion for the outdoors, for the woods, so throughout the project we worked to protect the trees, which was paramount to him.”
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“A disturbed site was viewed as a lost opportunity to showcase harmony with nature in our build,” the homeowner says, noting that he and his family had been searching for a location for years before they found this roughly 20-acre property on which they planned a multiphase project with several new buildings. “From the first walk of the site, it was clear that the perfect homestead location was, at last, discovered.”
Working with Wildeboer and Toronto-based design studio ACDO, the client described his vision for a materials-forward house inspired by the communal spirit of traditional lodge retreats (the family loves to entertain large groups) but with the modern sensibility of a contemporary hospitality project. The design was also heavily influenced by its bucolic setting.
Comprising 10,000 square feet over two wings (one public and one private) and three levels, the house is united through a simple yet elegantly realized palette of concrete, locally sourced soapstone, and smoked wire-brushed oak. “You get to see a human hand in there,” says Abraham Chan, a founding partner at ACDO, about the meticulous artisanal details, which include a custom-designed soapstone floor. “We deliberately did an interesting jigsaw pattern with it just to showcase this notion of craftsmanship in the project.”
With soaring, 24-foot-high ceilings, the living and dining area is central to the home’s public wing—and the client’s love of hosting dinner parties. At one end sits a massive concrete volume with an embedded fireplace and a hidden set of stairs that leads to the guest bedrooms. “It’s a very important structural element to the whole project,” Wildeboer says. “We have this incredible great room, this soaring ceiling, and all the structural loading is coming back to this fireplace, and to the kitchen wall [which is also concrete]. Those two structures are the fundamental core of the building; then we have this very light, ephemeral space in between.”
A large concrete box at one end of the living room holds a fireplace and conceals a set of stairs to the second level.
On one side of the common space, a custom Christophe Delcourt dining table can seat up to 18 people. The rest of the room is measured out into four separate seating areas that include a game table and spacious Living Divani sofas, while two Man of Parts swivel chairs designed by Yabu Pushelberg (Chan and Sam Khouvongsavanh, ACDO’s other cofounder, worked at the Toronto firm for several years) provide a cozy option for a midafternoon tête-à-tête.
Underfoot, a custom 28-by-40-foot rug from Creative Matters was designed to look like four separate pieces, further emphasizing the zones within the room. “The carpet was a way to absorb sound and create a bit of softness and connect all the seating areas,” says Chan, who notes that they used wooden beams overhead and intermittently along the windows “to create that warmth between the floor and ceiling” in a room with prominent concrete and stone details. “There’s actually a function behind that, because we put in acoustic panels,” he continues, “and that helped mitigate the cavernous quality of the space.”
The kitchen sits opposite the dining area, nestled into the second structural concrete volume. Here, the wire-brushed oak cabinetry (all millwork in the house was custom-made by Erik Cabinets) pairs with emerald quartzite, which makes up the bespoke island, countertops, and backsplash. “When it came to color, we peppered it throughout the project,” says Khouvongsavanh. “We’re trying to create these interesting details within this monolithic space.”
With custom millwork and striking emerald-quartzite features, the kitchen was meant to feel more sculptural than utilitarian.
The designers used unique stone varieties elsewhere—laying Alexis Ondulato and New Titanium marble in the bathrooms and covering all four walls of the second-level office with the kitchen’s green quartzite—to create a strong but streamlined visual impact. “I think this is a good example of the client’s style,” says Khouvongsavanh. “He’s being bold but refined with this really graphic stone.”
According to the homeowner, from the project’s start, “the interior was curated to represent the journey through a forest.” Each of the guest bedrooms is a different configuration (one has foot-to-foot beds, another a set of bunks), but they all have considered details such as ensuite bathrooms, luggage nooks, and integrated reading lights to ease a guest’s stay. “If you look at the four different rooms, you’re going to notice that they all have a different palette,” says Chan. “And that was our fun way of designing the rooms around identities of the different seasons that you find in eastern Ontario.”
The home’s lower level is focused on entertaining. A cozy cinema with oversize Montauk sofas is a favorite escape on a rainy day, and a large walk-in wine-storage room with backlit shelving and sliding-glass doors is a popular stop when friends visit. Once again, Chan and Khouvongsavanh implemented stone in the room, this time in granite with a tumbled finish, to layer in texture and connect the interiors to nature. “You get that rough finish,” says Chan, “like you would find in the mountains.”
Although the client and his family don’t reside in their woodland getaway year-round, they don’t classify it as a vacation dwelling. “Our hearts and minds never leave the home,” he says, noting that its intersection of beauty, functionality, and relationship to the surrounding environment perfectly fulfill their wish to share the property with those they hold close.
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