Trail’s Edge is a monumental new family home: a British Columbia house that conceals its substantial size through its immersive relationship with its natural surroundings in a wooded plot in Whistler.
Openspace Architecture designs this British Columbia house
Designed by North Vancouver’s Openspace Architecture, a practice founded in 1998 by Don Gurney and Eric Pettit, the new house is one of a series of spectacular residences the studio has built in the Pacific Northwest.
At 8,200 sq ft, the house occupies the southern part of a wedge-shaped plot south of Whistler Creek. The plan is tapered to follow the property line, with floor-to-ceiling glass looking out onto the trees and a relatively obscured and sober façade facing the public road, cloaking what is within.
The relationship with nature is emphasised by the decks that wrap around the forest façade. They are covered by a prow-like roof that sails off into the trees, and are supported by a row of tall steel columns that evoke the region’s arrow-straight cedar and pine trees. The lower deck wraps around the house and includes a hot tub and a fire pit, while the upper deck level is a more private space accessed from the principal bedroom suite.
Throughout the project, the architects have used chunky basalt stone cladding to define key areas of the interior and exterior, which contrast with the fine joinery used throughout for floors, ceiling, cabinetry and key pieces of furniture.
The architects describe this blend of solidity and openness as a way of achieving ‘the psychological comforts of shelter’. The interior is similarly subdivided, with thin wooden slat screens serving as partitions between the fluid series of main living rooms, which circulate around the main hallway.
These include a living and dining room, a family room, games room and office, with a downstairs guest suite and a dedicated space for ski storage and changing.
Upstairs there are five more ensuite bedrooms, with a double-height stairwell that rises up above the main entrance hall. The architects write that the ‘architecture immerses its inhabitants into the site's environment and offers a calming remedy to the cacophony of urban life’.
-
Formafantasma’s biodiversity-boosting installation in a Perrier Jouët vineyard is cross-pollination at its bestFormafantasma and Perrier Jouët unveil the first project in their ‘Cohabitare’ initiative, ‘not only a work of art but also a contribution to the ecosystem’
-
Gingerbread City: architects sculpt London out of the season's favourite treatUntil December 29 in Chelsea, see London brought to life in a seasonal-appropriate medium by leading architects and designers
-
New Revox B77 MK III reel-to-reel tape recorder, and more cassette tape-based trickeryThe new Revox B77 MK III might be the ultimate analogue flex. In response, we’ve explored the outer reaches of cassette tape design
-
This sustainable family home is an Ontario retreat in tune with its settingRidge House by Superkül is a private Canadian retreat that nods to its context and embraces nature and landscape
-
Bunkie on The Hill is a cosy Canadian cottage full of charmBunkie on The Hill, a design by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design, is tucked into the trees, slotting neatly into Ontario's nature
-
Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024: meet the practicesIn the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2024, our latest guide to exciting, emerging practices from around the world, 20 young studios show off their projects and passion
-
Svima looked to Japanese architecture, 'nature and ecology' for Passageway House in SerbiaThe Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024 includes Svima, a young Canadian practice joining our annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios
-
Arthur Erickson's Museum of Anthropology at UBC has been given a new lease of life in VancouverAfter an extensive renovation, The Museum of Anthropology is part Shinto shrine, part cathedral, part longhouse – and a temple to learning
-
A dramatic new lakeside cabin in the Canadian wilderness rises above the treesKariouk Architects' lakeside cabin ‘m.o.r.e. CLT’ explores new material approaches while making a minimal impact on a precious landscape
-
Forest Retreat is a new low-energy family house in the forests of OntarioSet beneath a vast roof, Forest Retreat is a rich mix of local materials, craftsmanship and space for an extended family to get together in the heart of nature
-
Join the West Coast Modern Week's Home Tour 2024 for modernist architecture and moreWest Coast Modern Week 2024 comes with its annual home tour courtesy of the West Vancouver Art Museum, offering an extensive, immersive showcase of Canada's modernist architecture
