A home in St.-Henri, Montreal, hidden
The House Garden Beau of Alexandre Bernier Architects hides within Montreal'S ST-Henri district with a reserved trust. Here, in a district that is characterized by industrial history and tight urban material House retains a quiet autonomy. Its slim vertical shape, shaped by concreteGently gets involved with the street while turning her focus on a garden.
The architect approaches the project as a radical interpretation of the traditional duplex in Montreal. The house is almost exclusively made of concrete, built from the structural core to the floor surfaces and suggests a courageous redefinition of the house architecture. In a city in which residential buildings are often wooden devices, this mono-material choice distinguishes the project in both the presence and in performance.
Pictures © Maxime Brouillet
Jardin House beautiful in a garden
With his Maison-Jardin Beau, Alexandre Bernier Architect shows a subtle duality. The Design team Combines the density of concrete with a transparent elevation of the garden so that the house can breathe in its envelope. The structural core supports open, stacked floor slabs and free the facades to invite light into every corner. Against the solidity of its mineral areas, shadows revitalize the interiors with a gentle rhythm from the surrounding leaves.
On the ground floor, the border between the house and the garden comes loose. Alexandre Bernier designs the residence with a sliding glass wall that is completely withdrawn and incorporates daily life into the landscape. A flat, reflective pool extends over the threshold, collects heaven and sunlight, offers a calm contrast to the weight of the house and invoices its mass in an element with weightless movement.
Maison-Jardin Beau is located in the St. Henri district in Montreal
Alexandre Bernier reacts to urban life
Alexandre Bernier Architecte curates the interiors of his Maison-Jardin Beau with expressive concrete, a range of raw materials that shows a surprising softness. The team selects different surfaces – Scarified Terrazzo Bloor's ham with an exposed aggregate, while the traces of the formwork remain visible on the walls. These surfaces become very material, but tactile and expressive. A fourteen foot high kitchen island, which is shaped with rounded edges, serves both as an anchor and as a collection point, which was cast in the same concrete language as the rest.
The architecture is not only based on its design aesthetics on concrete. Alexandre Bernier taps into his thermal properties to regulate internal comfort. The masses stores in winter and moderates the temperature in summer, supported by a radiant soil system that runs through the house. The integrity of the structure enables larger window openings that are strategically oriented to optimize daylight and seasonal solar gain.
The house is a new reaction to urban life. Instead of expanding to the outside, the compressed volume opens vertically and makes the garden thrive around it. In this way, the room feels privately and intimate, but it opens far to its surroundings. In this balance of contrasts, the house cultivates a way of life that feels both resilient and open to changes.
Alexandre Bernier designs the vertical family home, which is almost exclusively built from concrete
Sliding doors on the ground floor dissolves the border between the house and garden
The solidity of concrete is compensated for with openness to a private garden by a transparent facade