Architecture, Interior Design and Garden Design: 1628 Inc.
Location: Quebec, Canada
Project Team: Annie Charest and François Parenteau
2004-2005 Project Area (2004-2005): 5200 sq. ft.
2021-2022 Project Area 2021-2022: 3450 sq. ft.
Photographer: Drew Hadley
Press Distribution: v2com
About 1628 Inc.
1628 is a creative firm in the fields of architecture, design, and garden design, founded in 1998 by François Parenteau and Annie Charest. Previously known as Charest + Parenteau, the company has continued to grow with its new entity since 2022.
The firm’s interventions are in the institutional, residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. In parallel with its practice, significant resources are devoted to research and development to ensure the firm’s constant evolution. The versatility of the firm’s internal structure allows it to participate in projects both locally and internationally.
Many of the firm’s projects have earned them publication in the print media of many countries, as well as participation in exhibitions and awards in international architecture and design competitions.
The Georgeville Residence project is located in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec. It is built on a large meadow dotted with clumps of mature trees. The site of great beauty opens to the west onto a wide, rolling panorama. The owners, who have owned the property for several years, had called on the firm 1628 in 2004 for an initial renovation and expansion project of the residence built by previous owners during the 1980s.
The entire exterior envelope had then been reviewed, including the replacement of windows and insulation, a modification of the roof, and the addition of natural stone cladding. As part of this project, the house was also extended, and the 3-storey wing was built. The modifications also included a redevelopment and renovation of the interior spaces.
The owners contacted 1628 again in 2021 for the addition of spaces dedicated to receiving guests and colleagues. This new project therefore includes a living room, a dining room, and a kitchenette. It also includes a triple garage, an office, a relaxation room, and storage spaces. It was important that the new wing integrate perfectly with the existing building, and that it be in its visual and functional continuity.
Concept
In 2021, the site was occupied by the house previously renovated in 2004 and 2005. On each side of the residence, curved walls lined with glass blocks had been built to ensure the privacy of the backyard. This yard had also been developed with a swimming pool, sidewalks, and plantings.
All of these elements, as far as possible, had to be preserved. Knowing the property very well, the designers proposed an extension on the north side of the existing complex. The new wing is deliberately designed away from the elements to be preserved: it goes around them.
In doing so, it helps to close off the backyard to ensure greater privacy. To organize the space, the new living spaces were placed on the north-south axis, in line with the sidewalk next to the pool, and on the edge of the outdoor spaces already developed. In this location, the new rooms benefit from a magnificent view of the garden and the landscape.
The other rooms and spaces are arranged along the corridor joining the existing house. This corridor connects the existing house to a place where it was naturally easy to create a functional interior link.
The site and the importance of the landscape
The existing house was almost entirely oriented towards the landscape to the west. All the main rooms have at least one view of this side. The outdoor living spaces are also arranged there, grouped around the swimming pool. The owners wanted this logic to be respected for the extension.
They wanted the new additions to enhance and strengthen the links with the landscape. The designers respected this desire and pushed this concept further by multiplying and varying the points of view, in order to highlight other orientations and locations on the property. The extension is placed between the pool area and a grove of mature deciduous trees.
In addition to opening the new living rooms to the main panorama and the pool, these rooms also benefit from very beautiful views of the woods. Thus, depending on the seasons, the views and atmospheres change, which allows you to rediscover certain areas of the property that were underestimated. On the north side, the wooded area planted with imposing trees has been preserved near the extension.
Only a strip of lawn and a steep slope separate them. The walker discovers a place that contrasts by its verticality with the other outdoor spaces that echo more with the horizontality of the wide panorama. The close contact with the trees embellishes the interior via generous windows.
The designers favored the creation of new intimate outdoor spaces between the different parts of the house. A space for a Japanese-inspired garden is set up in a courtyard enclosed on three sides, located between the existing house and the extension. This space is visible from the inside through windows placed to highlight it.
The garden can be discovered from several different places and viewpoints as you wander around. A contemplative mineral garden is also placed between the new access corridor to the extension and a wall of glass blocks. Several windows overlook this space in which the light is filtered by the glass blocks.
Thus, depending on the time of day, the atmosphere is transformed and the colors change. Another important element: the views of the exterior volumes of the building from the interior of the house have been multiplied to add to the complexity and to enrich the experience. These viewpoints are multiple and change depending on where you are.
Finally, the exterior lighting has been designed to enhance the volumes and highlight the landscape, depending on the seasons.
Volumetry
The extension was designed on a single level. This makes it easier to move around and makes better use of the spaces. The whole was designed to accommodate people with reduced mobility if necessary. To prevent this extension from appearing too low and horizontal next to the existing house, which has 2 and 3 levels, the designers created new stepped volumes.
The low point is located at the intersection where the existing house and the roofs are gradually raised to the highest point, which is the new chimney. The latter was oversized to give it more presence. The exterior volumes are also cut out following the shape of the roofs.
This division accentuates the verticality, breaks the monotony, and creates a dynamic volumetric play. The proportions of the new volumes also follow the proportions of the existing house in order to avoid any visual break. The new link with the existing was placed towards the front of the existing house.
It was designed as a promenade, like an ambulatory that guides the visitor to an isolated place, set back from the rest of the house. It goes around the preserved glass block wall in an arc, and at a good distance. The contemplative garden was created in this gap.
The new volumes take up the facings, finishes, and details of the existing house. The cut stone elements come from the same quarry as the original stones and were custom-cut to fit in. A copper-coloured aluminium tile facing was integrated in certain places to visually lighten the whole and add an additional degree of complexity.
These interlocking aluminium sheets mostly take up the proportions of the stone elements. Other formats were planned to add texture or to cover by hugging the curved wall. “We created an extension that coherently complements the original house, as if the whole thing had been built in one go,” explains François Parenteau, architect and president of 1628.
“The addition of copper-coloured aluminium tile cladding complements the stone of the façades. It adds a lightness and complexity to this ensemble that remains timeless. It respects the aesthetics of 2004, while evolving it.”
Interior spaces
The extension is accessible from the entrance hall of the original house via the new access corridor. This corridor unfolds in an arc that goes around the existing one. It is fenestrated on each side in the first few meters, and benefits from views of the outside along its entire length.
It acts as the backbone of the extension. In addition to being the main circulation, it serves as a secondary entrance hall and cloakroom area. At its end, it lowers and transforms into a vaulted passageway over several meters.
This windowless passageway is narrower and is lit only by the ground. At its end, it opens onto the vast and bright living rooms. This contrast accentuates the size of the living room and highlights the openings onto the landscape.
Although on a single level, the rooms are endowed with a beautiful complexity. The play of volume and roofing observed outside is reflected in the height of the ceilings of the interior rooms and follows the same gradation. Although relatively high, the ceiling of the living room has been deliberately lowered in its center to increase privacy in front of the fireplace.
This ceiling is raised towards the high windows in inverted slopes to literally bring the landscape inside. The limits between the interior and the exterior thus become almost non-existent. “This project highlights how important it is to listen to the desires and needs of clients in order to create architecture and design that respects the lifestyle of its occupants,” explains Annie Charest, designer and vice-president of 1628.
“It is essential to work to create a setting in which people can flourish.” To avoid any visual disruption, the finishing materials used inside are in line with the materials of the existing house. The walls and ceilings are in painted gypsum, while the doors and woodwork are in stained cherry.
For the floors, the owners opted for concrete, stained pale brown, and with a polished finish. This material fits very well with the continuity of the slate tile floors of the existing house. In the living room, the imposing fireplace is clad in natural stone, such as the stone used on the facades.
The kitchenette was designed as an element that is similar to the furniture, integrating it more into the general aesthetic of the place. In the bathrooms, the walls are covered in porcelain tiles with a Carrara marble effect.
