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Architects: AGATHOM Co.
- Area: 5000 ft²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Steven Evans Photography
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Manufacturers: Louis Poulsen, Torp Inc, VAEV
Text description provided by the architects. Dove is a series of interconnected pavilions in the landscape. The 5,000 square-foot, L-shaped home is at its peak a space for dining, transiting into a low living space. Each room is independently situated and connected to multiple inner routes, so each main space becomes a destination. The experience of moving through the project is envisioned as a walk through Ontario woods and meadows. The heart of the home wraps around back-to-back fireplaces within monolithic concrete trunks. Natural light occurs through glimpses, washing walls, and reflecting off surfaces. This project employs a concept of environmental stewardship that is often overlooked. Enduring materials that will embrace time were chosen throughout the home. The goal of connectedness is to produce lasting empathy and a sense of belonging to the natural world.
Connectivity revealed through the structure - Dove is conceived as a series of interconnected tents or pavilions in the landscape rather than rooms filling out a governing shell. The tents orchestrate a succession of surprises. At its peak, a soaring grand gathering space for dining transits to a low, intimate, fire-lit living space. Each space is independently situated and connected to multiple inner routes – conceived as trails - so that each main room becomes a destination. The project brings importance to the paths between spaces as much as the rooms themselves. "Forest bathing" - health from within - The experience of moving through the project is envisioned as a walk through Ontario woods and meadows — gently up over logs, under low canopies, dramatically sweeping to towering heights, squeezing through rock canyons, passing water streams... all lit from unusual and unexpected places. The heart of the home wraps around back-to-back fireplaces within monolithic concrete trunks, like a gathering place at a clearing in the forest. Natural light is celebrated through glimpses, washing walls, and reflections off surfaces. Every moment of each day of the year creates entirely different qualities of light and shadow play.
Sustainability & biomorphic design - This project employs a concept of environmental stewardship that is often overlooked. Beyond the quantifiable environmental hurdles, the project has achieved, its envelope, ground-source heating and cooling, electrical harvesting, sunshine management, and resilient materials aim to directly connect the occupant in a memorable and meaningful way with its setting. The house opens and closes to highlight close and distant landscapes- low foregrounds contrasting with tree canopies and celestial events. The effect of natural light washes textures at specific moments of the day and year, telling different stories as time and seasons march on. The goal of connectedness is to produce lasting empathy and a sense of belonging and stewardship to the natural world. Dove is a 5,000 sq ft L-shaped residence. It is designed to be highly efficient, relying on little resources to perform. 41 photovoltaic panels on its highest roof provide electricity that surpasses the home’s demands, allowing its surplus energy to be fed back into the grid. Geothermal energy is harnessed to condition the building throughout the seasons. Its thermal performance is enhanced by a robust blanket on all sides. When concrete masses travel from inside to outside, a distinct thermal-separation buffer is achieved. The building enjoys green gardens on its flat roofs – these gardens are populated with local, drought-tolerant plants, and are irrigated with collected site water.
Concrete & steel beyond structure - Internal cast-concrete towers and walls are used to create visceral textural richness and are also designed to perform as structural armatures supporting the roof structure above. The concrete was engineered as masts to anchor a network of structural steel frames spanning across the interior spaces and beyond. This system allows the wood ceiling forms to sculpturally weave through the project and pass from space to space, seemingly floating without support. The monumental heaviness of the concrete forms creates a play between the expansive openings and the lightness of the folded roof forms.
Material palette inspired by nature - Enduring materials that will embrace time were chosen throughout the home. The folded main roof, lined with white birch on the interior and rich weathering steel on its outer skin, rises gently through the spaces, cradling the interior warmly like a tent. To enhance the tactile experience a material palette was developed holding strong juxtapositions such as the reflective, boldly patterned green-colored stone of the counter surfaces and warm oak floors and millwork to the surface of the concrete, carrying the grain of the rough wood boards used to form it, creating a rich tactile character and expressing the memory of its making.
Product design & allied arts - In addition to the architectural design of both the exterior and interior, the design work included custom lighting fixtures, bespoke rugs, and built-in furniture, as well as the greenhouse and covered walkway, the pool, and the landscaping—each element working in concert to achieve a harmonious whole.
