Echo House
Christian Lalonde

Echo House

Kariouk Associates en tant que Architectes.

Task: To marry eighty-four years of history by integrating a contemporary, open and functional living space inside a 1924 landmark that overlooks the Rideau Canal. Project Challenge: The starting point for this renovation was a modest Victorian home in poor condition, whose rooms with small windows and dark interior spaces were separated from one another, as was typical of homes built in an era when privacy was a cultural priority. In another gesture to Victorian public decorum, the arrangement of the existing interior spaces reinforced the antiquated ideal that work life and family life should be kept distinct. Although the client required the renovated space to welcome work life in the home while continuing to maintain clear separations from their family life, it was also important to create a modern, bright space that, albeit small in size, would still appear spacious and visually connected.


Project Response: Echo: noun; "A sympathetic or identical response, as to sentiments expressed; a lingering trace or effect" That the house had scarcely been changed since it was originally constructed was both a virtue and a challenge that enabled design opportunities. The footprint of the house is small (approximately seven-hundred square feet). It was therefore not possible to create a loft-like setting on the ground floor that seemed simultaneously open and provided the required distinct work/living spaces. The house was re-envisaged as a vertical loft - an open, four-storey volume reaching from the basement to the ceiling of the new roof. The new main level and former basement level are opened to each other by a wide stair that highlights views to the home's original stone foundation walls. Hence, the former Victorian main living level, once segregated into four separate rooms, is now made open and spacious. The small, original windows are replaced with large windows both at the front and rear of the new parlour, visually extending that space into the front yard and the back yard, and, finally, enabling views from the back yard (all the way through the house) to views of the Rideau Canal.


The remaining spatial requirements included very private spaces: a study that could accommodate several thousand books, a den, and a master-bedroom suite. In order to achieve the seemingly paradoxical request for a loft-like home but with spaces as private as the former Victorian ones, the study, den, and "book vault" are designed as distinct volumes suspended inside the larger, four-storey volume. Because these volumes "float" high up within the now-emptied shell of the original house, they achieve the required visual privacy from the parlour below and the street outside (despite the expanded areas of windows). Though these spaces are small, they are bright and airy and seem large since they all have visual access to both windows and other interior spaces of the home.


The very most private areas of the redesigned house (such as closets, toilets, and stairs) are arranged along the south wall of the house and are shielded by a three-storey hickory "modesty screen." At the top level, the master-bedroom suite cantilevers over the front facade and yard and also appears as a distinct, floating volume, and forms a canopy over the entry. In this way, the former attic space of the Victorian house is redesigned to provide for light and views where none existed before in the original home, and due to its elevated position, it does so while maintaining privacy. At the initial request of the clients, this renovation allows the values of a bygone era to be given voice in the current era.

Project Spotlight
Product Spotlight
News
Nokha Village Community Centre by Sanjay Puri Architects is an architectural oasis in the desert
19 mars 2024 Nouvelles
Le centre communautaire du village de Nokha, conçu par Sanjay Puri Architects, est une oasis architecturale dans le désert.

L'agence Sanjay Puri Architects, basée à Mumbai, a achevé le centre communautai... En savoir plus

Square and Tourist Office: Emerging finalist in Mies van der Rohe Awards 2024
18 mars 2024 Nouvelles
Place et office de tourisme : Finaliste émergent du Prix Mies van der Rohe 2024

Dans cette série Archello, nous examinons chacun des sept projets nominés (cinq finali... En savoir plus

Introducing Partner Motion Facades
Présentation des façades Partner Motion

Motion Facades est spécialisée dans la fourniture de systèmes de façade... En savoir plus

Bergendy Cooke, Grégoire Du Pasquier, Ruth Baleiko and Mathew Albores join Archello Awards 2024 jury panel
18 mars 2024 Archello Awards
Bergendy Cooke, Grégoire Du Pasquier, Ruth Baleiko et Mathew Albores rejoignent le jury des Archello Awards 2024

Les architectes Bergendy Cooke, Grégoire Du Pasquier, Ruth Baleiko et Mathew Albores ont &eac... En savoir plus

JSWD completes new office complex in Bonn unified by triangular facade elements
15 mars 2024 Nouvelles
JSWD achève un nouveau complexe de bureaux à Bonn, unifié par des éléments de façade triangulaires

Le cabinet d'architectes international JSWD a achevé le complexe de bureaux Neuer Kanzlerplat... En savoir plus

Archello Awards 2024 expands with 'Firm Awards'
15 mars 2024 Archello Awards
Les Archello Awards 2024 s'enrichissent de "Firm Awards" (prix de l'entreprise)

Aujourd'hui, Archello présente une nouvelle série de Firm Awards catégories pou... En savoir plus

Studio Egret West develops plans for new Passivhaus homes
14 mars 2024 Nouvelles
Le Studio Egret West développe des plans pour de nouvelles maisons Passivhaus

Le cabinet d'architecture et de design multidisciplinaire basé à Londres Studio Egret... En savoir plus