Complexity Hides Within a Concrete Box

The design of this house in Quebec is pushed by the structure and demands of the family — namely, some solitude for the teenaged children and some family gathering spaces. Architect Paul duBellet Kariouk’s result may seem harsh at first glance, however, the monolithic exterior hides an interior that is open, light and more complicated than it may seem from the outside.

This ideabook requires a tour around and inside the house, showing the careful layout that allows each family member to be alone — but also come together in an inspirational space.

Kariouk Associates

Kariouk calls the masonry box that the “base of the family.” The house sits over a river valley, and it’s clear from the exterior the top flooring captures the views through its large windows; the reduced floor is mostly solid.

Kariouk Associates

The other side of the shoebox-shape house is made up of windows, hinting at where the sun monitors its route. The large windows soak up the sun, yet this side tries to contain as much warmth as possible — important anywhere in Canada.

Kariouk Associates

While the concrete-block exterior looks monolithic at first glance, Kariouk composed the blocks into a pinwheel pattern that gives the building a dramatic texture.

Kariouk Associates

The entry is located on one of the short sides, called out with a glass strip, a walkway and a vertical bollard light place from the ground. The glass over the door hints at some of the sophistication.

Kariouk Associates

1 step into the house and the reason behind the glass over the doorway is apparent: A double-height space extends from the entrance all the way to the opposite end of the house. Hence the 2 floors of the house are linked spatially; the zone for the kids is downstairs and for the parents and gathering is upstairs.

Downstairs the finishes are easy (luminous concrete flooring, painted drywall), but as we will see they are more refined upstairs.

Kariouk Associates

Before we examine the rest of the house, it’s good to see the floor plans to comprehend how the rooms work and how the flooring relate. The dashed lines along the hallway at the bottom of the plan are flooring over the hallway that extend into the outside wall. Each one the rooms are off the hallway: 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, mechanical, storage and a TV space that can be open or shut off.

Kariouk Associates

Upstairs is basically an open-plan living room with the master bedroom at the end. Among the flooring extensions (the dashed areas in the past plan) will be a connection to a roof garden that has yet to be built — the roof will probably lift the homeowners over the trees, giving them a fantastic spot for outdoor dining and relaxing. The other floor expansion is a bathtub for the master bedroom, an intriguing condition (the architect calls it that the house’s “one significant cushy indulgence”) that will be explained afterwards.

Kariouk Associates

The staircase in the middle of the plan bring us up into the open living room. Behind us is a small window on the altitude seen earlier (there’s a logic into the windows that is evident from the floor plans). Opposite is the doorway that will eventually offer access to the roof garden.

The concrete flooring of downstairs provide way to wood flooring and glass, located from the railings and in a frosted-glass door visible on the wall at left (more on that later).

Kariouk Associates

The stairway serves double duty, both bringing people upstairs and setting smaller spaces in the open plan — the dining room area is located in the foreground and the living room outside. The kitchen overlooks the living room, and each the spaces look out onto the trees through the large windows.

Kariouk Associates

This vantage point from the kitchen accentuates the openness of the plan, as well as what’s obtained by opening part of the flooring between both levels. Not only are the 2 floors connected through space and sound, but they have a stronger connection to the outside through the large windows.

Kariouk Associates

Like the total house, the master bedroom is compact. Sliding doors function the closet in front of the mattress in addition to closing off the space from the living room outside, providing some privacy in the toilet (note the ceiling trail running the width of the space). Also note that the flooring extends into the far wall. It isn’t open to under, since the plan indicates, but something interesting is going on in the restroom.

Kariouk Associates

As stated earlier, the “cushy” addition to the house is a sunken tub that projects over the double-height area. One can look from the tub through the house and outside the expansive windows. The frosted-glass panel found earlier allows some solitude, something that happens both upstairs and downstairs.

Next: Explore more contemporary houses

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