Clearview Residence / Altius Architecture Inc

Architects: Altius Architecture Inc
Location: Collingwood, ON, Canada
Project Architects: Graham Smith, Joe Knight
Lead Design Architect: Graham Smith, Joe Knight
Area: 4,500 sqm
Year: 2011
Photographs: Jonathan Savoie

Engineer: CUCCO engineering
Construction: Valley View Construction
Interior Design: Sarah Richardson Design Inc
Landscape: John Lloyd & Associates

From the architect. Designed for a local artist to enjoy, this residence is located just south of Collingwood, in the heart of the Clearview area.  A broad selection of sustainable technologies, including a geothermal lake loop and green house set this project apart from others in the area. The building itself draws inspiration from a number of intimate relationships and views, both through the adjacent woodland, as well as across the nearby pond.

The buildings programme is pretty extensive and with the clients desire to maintain the majority of this over one level the design team were particularly aware of the need to integrate the building into its surroundings in a subtle manner. Consequently this quickly became one of our main focuses and thus gave the scheme real direction, as we sought to arrange each space appropriately within the overall layout so to take advantage of the site and its beauty as well as to make sure that the building was as user friendly and functional as possible.

The material palette was of particular importance as it was paramount that the building became steeped within its surroundings, and so we chose to pursue a selection of materials that would reflect the nature of adjacent landscape and in particular its seasonally changing colours and textures. True to this we incorporated the ever evolving characteristics of corten steel, the earthy tones of a deep grey/blue ‘Cape Cod’ pre-finished wood siding, as well as other products like slate and ipe wood decking.