Go Home Bay Cabin is a small project that responds directly to the criteria for this awards program with regard to creativity, context, sustainability and legacy.
The Cabin stands in stark contrast to the many large object buildings that dot and dominant the landscape of the Georgian Bay archipelago. This cabin hides itself in the landscape through thoughtful consideration of views from the water and a technical resolutionof how to ‘’touch’ the landscape lightly. While the design language is contemporary, it embodies the regions vernacular characteristics of building construction and simplicity. It is this simplicity that belies a profound connection to the surroundings that is at once stirring and peaceful. Globe and Mail architecture critic Alex Bozikovic describes it as follows:, …from the water, it’s a black smudge in the shadows on a treed hillside; if you land and climb the pink rock, the cottage reveals itself as a sedate box of dark wood and glass, cached behind junipers and topped with an overhanging roof planted with grasses and wildflowers.
This ‘black smudge’ is the result of a careful contemplation of scale, monochromatic colour scheme and strategic siting that allow it to occupy a prominent vantage point with very little presence.
The flip side of this low profile building is an intimate environment within the
cabin, disguised within a forest largely unaffected by your presence.
The design embraces sustainable technologies to ensure that a comfortable accommodation can be achieved on this hot, back water site without an undue expenditure of energy.
Exterior shades and irrigated green roof provide passive cooling, while large sliding glass doors and clerestory allow ample cross ventilation.
From a legacy point of view this project is being published and used as a precedent for building fine domestic spaces in the delicate natural landscape of the Georgian Bay archipelago.
There are a number of presentations planned to the local communities and building officials along this shore who have shown significant interest in the project.
Check out our BLOAAg article for more information.
Publish Date : 2021/Sep/01