Located on Quebec’s Lac Tremblant, house MTR by Alain Carle Architecte is situated on steep terrain with rocky cliffs. A large flat rock cap on the site serves as a type of natural balcony over the lake and also serves as ‘Level 0’ for the house. This careful siting allows for great views and draws in the monumentality of the natural surroundings.
The house follows the linear nature of the stone mass. Simple shapes, volumes and repetitive composition reinforce the horizontal appearance of the site from the shore and emphasize the rock cap’s mineral texture. Architecture becomes a backdrop to the main rock.
The building’s form, with a long flat roof deck accessible from the pitched gable second storey draws on the concept of a belvedere. While largely horizontal in form, a double-storey main façade provides generous vertical windows that flank the house’s interior stairway. The horizontal nature of the ground floor is further juxtaposed by the vertical movement of the stairwell.
Speaking to the site-based approach, the architects say, ‘Like an observatory, this residence can divert its occupants’ perspective from the determining nature of the stylistic architectural approach to reveal the essential aspect of its role: that of being positioned somewhere in space.’
