New life for the 1908 house. It’s hard to believe that this is what it looks like now

It has been remodelled and enlarged. The new life of the single-family house was taken care of by architects from the Pelletier de Fontenay studio. The building is located in Montreal, Canada and, set in a picturesque landscape, has become the owners’ dream place to live.

The building is surrounded by greenery. It is an old house originally built in 1908 and modestly extended in the 1950s. The house has remained largely unchanged since then. With its solid walls, massive geometry and large chimneys, it resembled a small manor house rather than a traditional country house. Inside, the small windows and unusual layout made the space seem awkward and narrow, while outside, the mismatched stone walls merged into one form with the grey cement mortar. The charm of the stone was gone. The architects decided to bring it out.

The architects’ task was to retain as much of the original building and structure as possible, while redesigning the internal layout. In addition, the designers were to enlarge the ground floor area and connect the building to the surrounding landscape.

A considerable challenge was to combine the three different periods of construction into a coherent whole. Instead of creating a contrasting language with the new elements or attempting to imitate historical buildings, the designers opted for a timeless aesthetic. The walls and roof of the extension on the ground floor are deep and thick, a reference to the old structure. The low new part allowed the existing pitched roofs to remain intact.

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When designing the façade, the architects used white cement coatings to cover all the facades, both old and new, as well as all the walls inside the house. The colour of the facade makes the white house stand out against the lush greenery in summer and blends into the snowy landscape in winter.

During the works, the historic walls were renovated, the damaged doors and windows were replaced with new, wooden and insulated ones. Restoration of the original fireplaces was carried out, with work on the fireplaces carried out by local stonemasons. Where possible, the architects chose local materials. In the living room, some of the original beams were retained and reused.

The metamorphosis of the house in Canada is a good example of combining old architecture with new. By choosing high-quality materials and using thoughtful solutions, it is possible to make old buildings successfully last for decades to come.

photos: James Brittain

design: Pelletier de Fontenay

source: v2com

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