Le Hameau residence
A LARGE-SCALE, COMPLEX CONSTRUCTION PROJECT
The sainte-agathe residence is one of those projects whose scale and complexity mark a builder’s career. To begin with, the house features two imposing cantilevered sections: the screened-in veranda on the first floor and the master bedroom upstairs. Visitors are immediately struck by the fact that these are literally two rooms “Perched” in the air.
Then, comprising 4,420 sq. Ft. On three floors, the imposing residence is built around a vast central open area from which two wings extend. This gives the house a volumetry far removed from typical residential architecture. The hamlet has three floors: garden level, ground floor (1680 sq. Ft.), upper floor and garage. From pre-project coordination to final construction, écohabitations boréales invested more than a year of work in the project.
An adapted living space
The Sainte-Agathe residence was designed to meet the needs of a young medical couple looking to settle in the Laurentians and start a family. The house features two bedrooms and two bathrooms on the first floor, as well as a playroom and two additional bedrooms on the garden level. To cope with the emergency calls inherent in the life of such health professionals, a double garage has been provided. This garage will enable them to leave the house quickly in any season. As the owners also love outdoor sports and cycling, a section of the ground floor has been converted into a “sports store”. This section features plenty of stylish and functional storage space, as well as the laundry room. The first floor features a large, central open-plan living area with lounge, fireplace, dining room and kitchen. The kitchen has been carefully planned and designed to cater for a large family! Large floor-to-ceiling windows encircle the space with great transparency. The view of the lake and surrounding mountains, as well as the intimate courtyard, is impressive. Built in the kingdom of the black fly, a comfortable screened-in veranda completes the ensemble.
Concrete as a finishing material
Concrete is a material that is gaining in nobility among many designers, and is found as a high-end finishing element in more and more projects, notably in the Sainte-Agathe residence. Several sections of the Sainte-Agathe foundation feature a wood plank pattern. Concrete was also polished on all three floors of the house. A concrete screed was poured on both the ground and upper floors.
Clean, modern lines
The Sainte-Agathe residence expresses great modernity, both in its volumes and in its finish. Gone are the frames and moldings that camouflage the small spaces between material junctions; everything had to align perfectly, both inside and out. All interior doors are full-height, extending from floor to ceiling. Several doors are retractable, some of them very wide. The tracks are recessed into the ceilings. There is no framing around the doors, and the baseboards at the bottom of the walls are recessed. All these well-executed details contribute to the refinement of the property, which expresses itself through pure, modern lines.
A skilful blend of steel and wood
The total weight of the steel beams and columns installed on the project was estimated at over 20,000 lbs. That’s pretty unusual for a residential project! The structure of the Sainte-Agathe residence is a skilful blend of wood and steel elements. To achieve this, solutions had to be found for both fabrication and installation. For example, several steel beams were specially shaped to accommodate wooden nailing bottoms which, once added by site workers, allowed the wood structure to attach to them. Both Écohabitations boréales and the project’s architects, engineers and structural and mechanical subcontractors were involved in planning this assembly several months before work began.
A giant skylight
On the first floor, in the central area, are the kitchen, dining room, foyer and living room. From this atrium, you can look up through an opening in the upstairs floor to see the imposing skylight over twenty feet high. It’s a breathtaking sight! According to the plans and architectural concept, it was important that one end of this skylight align perfectly with the kitchen island. This is the kind of detail that requires the builder to be very precise in the execution of the work, and to be very vigilant and thorough. Écohabitations boréales is proud to have met this challenge.
Quality materials
With its abundance of custom-colored all-aluminum windows, the Hameau benefits from abundant natural light. The two-tone color scheme for the exterior siding emphasizes the house’s volumes. White cedar and pine tongue-and-groove boards were used. The roof cladding is made entirely of enamelled sheet steel, with a lifetime warranty.
A concealed garage door
The double garage door on the Sainte-Agathe residence is 16 feet wide. Écohabitations boréales was tasked with making it “invisible”. To achieve this, the door was to be entirely covered with wood siding like that of the house, and aligned perfectly with the exterior wall, rather than being set back from it as is usually the case. What’s more, the joint lines between the planks of vertically installed siding had to continue perfectly onto the garage door. This project required a great deal of patience and perseverance on the part of the builder and his workers.
A high-performance, eco-friendly home
Like all the company’s other projects, no compromises were made on the home’s ecological attributes, as the Sainte Agathe residence was awarded LEED Gold certification. This certification requires processes that frame construction, from conception to completion, providing all partners with important benchmarks. All stages of validation, inspection, etc. assure the builder and customer that the project is under control and of high quality.
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