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Situated between an old logging road and a working hillside vineyard, a residence in North Hatley village, Quebec, embraces a key motif prevalent in the site’s agricultural setting to create a 47.2-m (155-ft) long, linear house—welcoming views of the vineyard and Lake Massawippi.
Designed by LAMAS Architecture Ltd. and called the “Virgin Vineyard House,” the residence derives its name from a farm whose ruins once stood above the site. The client was interested in building a new residence on the land, with minimal disturbance to the vineyard, capturing views of the lake.
The key motif in the project’s design are the gathered stones forming fieldstone walls in the local agricultural landscape. Gathered stones start as a landscape feature, separating the house from the road, and ultimately comprising the north wall of the building.
The wall shelters the living spaces from the road, the northerly winds, and discreetly tucks them into the hillside. The wall also runs against the length of the entire building, punctuated by windows, a chimney, an entry, and a courtyard. The south side of this long linear residence is open to the lake and vineyard views under a large protective overhang.
The long house organizes the private bedrooms at either end, while the central gathering spaces are in the middle of the linear house. The walls dividing each room are purposefully rotated for views facing the lake. This simple geometrical twist creates an oblique relationship between the rooms and the roof ridge line, making the rooms feel like private sheds, each with its unique volume directed toward the lake.
In plan, the rooms are arranged in a sawtooth formation, creating recesses of semi-private spaces under the large roof overhang. Within this seemingly simple building are two large voids, one being a courtyard framing the angle of the logging road, and the other being a roof deck.
The building is meant to elucidate a relationship between the stone wall and wood tectonics. Aside from the heavily insulated stone wall on the north side, most of the construction materials are wood. For the main part of the house, this refers to light wood framing, either with studs, engineered lumber, or deep joists. On the south facade, however, wood is employed structurally in the mullions of the wood glazing system, a highly performative envelope with triple glazing throughout. Wood construction was of interest to keep the embodied energy and carbon footprint down, but also to allow for a well-insulated envelope.
Beyond the environmental aspect, the lumber, hemlock cladding, stone, and even the high-performance glazing systems were all locally procured in Quebec. Even the geothermal ground source heating was not just a “de rigeur” systems choice, but rather a particularly advantageous element in Quebec, where plentiful carbon-free municipal electricity can power the heat pumps. Foremost in the architects’ minds was this connection to the location through materials and craft, as well as traditional forms of Quebec architecture. The owner is currently working with a local horticulturalist to plant indigenous flora to support the natural habitat of the site.
