BIt approaches art and poetry more than construction at some point. I like to keep it real and get it built, but there should be a big vision, like a vision of beauty, of being really functional and useful and being strong and sturdy. You’re listening to Build the Unbuildable, a podcast about designing dream cottages on some of the most challenging sites in Ontario’s cottage country. All right, welcome to Build the Unbuildable, the podcast about building high-end homes in impossible places.
My name is John Tyman, and as always, I’m joined by James Pitcher, principal architect at Lakeside Architecture. James, how you doing? >> I’m doing pretty well today, John. How about yourself? >> I’m doing well. I’m doing well. >> That’s great. >> I’m excited about our topic because um this is one that I’m curious about and building on steep, nearly completely inaccessible sites. There’s a lot that goes into that and I’m sure that we’re going to unpack it and um you know we’ll talk about site conditions, regulatory constraints, and then creative design that goes along with the form of the land. So um yeah, I’m excited to dig into this one. >> It’s going to be a good one. It’s going to be another deep dive, John. >> All right. So, uh, James, let’s start with, um, an awardwinning lakeside cottage that you designed in the Kortha region in Northern Ontario. Um, what was it about this location that made it so challenging? >> Yeah, that’s a good uh, starting uh, question there, John. You know, um, as an architect, I’m the uh, chief architect at Lakeside Architecture, Inc., We’re focused on on lakeside architecture or interesting sites and we’re always looking for opportunities that make particular sites um interesting, open up the possibility to explore different types of forms, create a better dialogue with the owner, more interesting conversation regarding design possibilities.
So when we came across this um this client and their property, we knew we had a challenge to explore and to address. So this is in uh the Cora region um in southern Ontario. It’s on the edge of the Canadian shield, so it’s a pretty rugged topography, a lot of uh surface bedrock. The interesting thing about it though is that the site uh characteristics have the bedrock of the more northern regions, the granite bedrock and limestone mixed in on the same site sometimes. And you can notice this when you’re driving up a highway of 503 and 507 in Ontario. You get to a point where you’re driving through the highway along the highway rock outcroppings and first you’re looking at limestone and then you’re going a little bit further north and then you’re onto granite which is more characteristic of of the Canadian shield and then a few kilometers down you are into a mixture of both. So it’s a very rich environment. It creates a very craggy uh craggy uh short lake shorelines and a sort of convoluted topography. Basically hilly steep sightes and sometimes you’re finding that you’re building right up against a lake. The thing about this lake here is that there were cottages that were built quite a while back. Uh probably about 80 80 years ago at the time >> and they were built they were all built very close to the shore. >> This particular cottage the the original cottage you see there was built within 20 ft of the shoreline and uh very secluded.
It had um some there were some other outuildings and it was part of a compound actually. And the thing that I found interesting about it to answer uh to answer your question was rather than a deep sort of a deep narrow lot going in, this was stretched out very thinly along uh lowlying shoreline. And I knew there would be constraints with the topography with the uh municipal bylaws as well as with conservation authorities. There are new regulations regarding distances from the lake crunch location of septic tanks. Well, so there’s a real puzzle in the making there. >> Yeah, I can totally see how that would be. We talked on a previous episode about um do we renovate, do we build a new and it seems like this this particular build was a little bit of a a renovation building on top of that footprint. Do I have that right? >> Well, uh here’s here’s how things developed. At the beginning of the project, there was that classic discussion of whether we ren or we we build new. Mhm. >> And it was an interesting structure because it had some length to it which was a function of maximizing views along the lake and and so on at the time.
However, with the the topography of the site uh and the the harsh winters that we have in cottage country in Ontario over the years there’s been a lot of settling. There’s cracking. Windows no longer open and close properly. they get jammed when your structure is settling differentially everywhere. So, it was pretty clear at the time that it would be um it would be a tear down and build new. Now, the interesting thing is that the owner was really clear that they didn’t want to lose that proximity to the lake. So, one of the first things I caution cottagers is to not knock down any structure before we get a survey on the site. locate the building, the footprint, elevations off the water, proximity to the water, proximity to wells, property lines and septic and so forth and note the condition out of all of those and prepare an actual study of existing conditions. This became critical because we ended up having to get uh municipal planning approvals. We went uh through a what is known as a committee of adjustment and ultimately a change to the the an application under the planning act >> to get approval on this project here. Interesting. And so what was your experience like navigating that? Because when we talked on that other episode and if folks that are watching this or listening want to go back and really do a deep dive on renovate versus building a new definitely go check out that episode. But just quickly, James, what was your process like kind of going through that with that regulatory committee? >> Yeah. Yeah. So, John, uh, it it was clear to me that we had to defend the client’s ability to build the proximity to the lake. So, what that meant is we were going to go in through some clauses in the bylaws that would permit building over the existing footprint.
Now, it varies from municipality to municipality. Overall, the intent under the the the planning act is to preserve the lakeside environment, meaning they don’t want to see a lot of more development on the lakes. >> Mhm. >> Aesthetically from the water is is one of one of the concerns. Now the way that different municipalities enact that uh it varies and then times well with this municipality uh their solution like other municipalities was to regulate the the impact on the lake by setting up a setback >> right >> from the water pushing the the the building back from the water. Now the way the rules work is you need to have part of your building over the existing footprint and uh in this municipality part of the solution was pushing backwards but there’s a formula that they use so that as you push further back you can go wider with the building and there’s this interesting play about you have to have one almost have one leg still in the on the original location on the building and you can stretch back but your width and your height will be regulated by particular formulas and this is true in um in the Coras in uh the North Cor township in um the Makoka Lakes um Graven Bracebridge they all have these formulas that they work with.
It’s challenging and it’s very intimidating for a lot of homeowners. Um but that is the first step is to figure out what what the rules are and then to know your intent. I knew we had a battle that we’d have to go through um with uh special approvals for for this layout. >> Very cool. Well, it sounds like it’s a you know quite the uh the red tape that you got to navigate there. So, >> well, the the the constraints, John, uh they’re offputting to a lot of people. Uh that that’s clear. But in a way those are the rules of a of an intricate dance of design and working with constraints, working with budgets and people’s preferences and so on. It’s part of the whole process of of exploring what is best for a particular site. >> And I suppose layering on constraints is one way to unlock creativity in the build. So, why don’t we uh if for folks that are joining us on YouTube, we have some photos that we want to share. And James, I would love for you to kind of walk through these photos and give us some color commentary about this build and about the process that you went through. >> That sounds like a plan. As long as your viewers are okay with it, um I think that’s the way to go. >> And if folks are listening to this, check out the YouTube version so that you can follow along visually with us. All right. So, James, what we’re looking at right here, I’m assuming that this is the old structure and we’re going to start from ground zero. >> So, ground zero, uh, the client gracefully invited, uh, me to explore the property. So, we had a look at the existing structure. I like to measure things. I like to understand how the property was used, how the family uses the structure itself. So, we were out there early on in the process uh right in the winter and um difficult access, no paved roads, unshoveled secondary roads getting back into the back country. But this is what we did so that we could get a feeling of the property.
It is remote. It’s very private and it has a history to it. This has been used by their family over generations. There’s a compound there. It’s on a point, John. And there are several buildings and in some ways there’s a strong feeling not to change any of the uh the the uh structures at all. Now, creativity is one thing, but uh buildability and and what actually makes sense in uh the real world, whatever that means to you and I is another. So, I like to work with real uh I I I do like the constraints, John. So right away what we did was we their own inventory of the property, the history of it, their preferences, their wishes for the for the for their new cottage uh project and then as soon as we could in the spring I had the surveyor get on the site. Now having a surveyor is really important because on one hand you want to be very clear about your boundaries about setback from the lakes. Where is the actual lake level? Typically, it’s done geodetically, meaning it’s based on a fixed height over sea level. So, you’ve got to get out there. You need someone to map it for you, uh, i.e. a um a land surveyor.
And that is instrumental in understanding the actual setbacks because sometimes you’ll find that the water levels, for example, sometimes they’re just mapped. Sometimes they’re on municipal mapping, sometimes they have different rules. You need to know the rules that they’re working with because it significantly affects your your build zone. Then our surveyor will map the actual setbacks that are current with the municipalities also with the conservation authorities. In our area, John, water levels are very uh they’re they’re critical and they go up and down in some areas. So there are sensitive environmentally sensitive areas that may be prone to high water pretty much on on most lakes and particularly rivers in cottage country. So it’s important to get that down. >> A secondary uh function of the surveyors that I’m really interested in is their ability to produce the the topography, the topographic lines of the project. So they’re in the bush taking um elevations of of the slope uh which you can see there those are the the topography lines and then uh as you might know John I’m working a lot with 3D modeling. So these days I’m actually putting the the the contours into 3D modeling programs, even physical models like this one here, so that we can get a real understanding of what the slope is as well because where we position the building is going to affect the cost. It’s going to affect the the the functions um the and the the buildability of the the structure as well. Hardly anybody does it. I hardly see it at all. It’s uh it’s a real important thing to do.
One thing I I find huge on uh you can learn a lot as you go through the process. And if you think of it as a process instead of just services, you learn from the people that are doing uh doing the the the work in the field. If you don’t mind, I can tell you a little quick story about one thing I learned in the field one day. Well, on one of our projects on uh on Lake A, which is uh closer to our uh our hometown up in Huntsville, um we were in the bush and the server had uh uh was telling me about the trees that they encounter in the bush. And what we have up here are these beautiful ballsome furs and they have these little blisters on them. and he was busy telling me that if you ever cut your hand in the bus, uh you can poke these little blisters and you put the little sappy tarpentine like uh substance on your fingers and it’ll it’ll heal your wounds right away. Well, I thought that was pretty amusing. And then he turned around and he had blood all over his arms and I thought it was some kind of prank or joke. And it turned out that he wasn’t paying attention for a second and with a hatchet he actually cut his finger. >> Oh jeez. And true to his word, he healed it up with the the the balsam furs sack. So now we know with a little bit of uh knowledge for for your viewers there is that um in the wood there are plants that can help us out and uh knowledge is all around us in the bush. >> I I didn’t know about the the balsam fur sap.
I did know that about yrow which is a a plant that grows naturally around here and be used to help stop bleeding. I think that that is an incredible point, James, about thinking about this in stages and going through this process is incredibly important because you don’t want to put the cart before the horse. You want to make sure that you understand the topography of the land, how that impacts the cost. Um, is it within the right zoning and regulations. Um, I’m curious about those setbacks. So, it seemed to me like there were different setbacks for different authorities and you had to find kind of like the common ground there or is this is this two regulatory bodies working together to determine what the setback is? >> Well, that that’s a great question, John. Sometimes the uh requirements are conflicting. >> Okay.
>> And they they all go back to the highest use of the land and compatibility with bylaws which are set in place to protect the environments on the lake. In a lot of cases, in most cases on tough sites, I am going through committee of adjustment approvals and there’s a there’s a discovery period where you come up with a design, you come up with your your site and you sit down and you have a conversation. At the end of the day, the municipality will tell you whether they feel that they will approve your proposal uh or they won’t. And a lot of times it’s strictly based on setbacks. is based on frontage on the lake. Uh it’s based on the height and constraints of topography and the high the the hydraulic characteristics of the site. Meaning are you building over an area that has surface water running through it? Like are you building on the edge of a ravine or waterhed? So in preparation we’re also uh having um a study done by hydro geologists. They’ll come out and they’ll take those topography lines and they’ll tell us where the water’s running.
Are we building in a way that’s blocking the flow on the site and is that impacting anything on the flood plane? >> Right. >> And then which introduces another layer of complexity is is we we have the the flow characteristics is how are we affecting the environment. >> Mhm. So when we put together our arguing for our proposal for this this project, it was the uh the municipality, it was the conservation authority, um it was uh neighbors concerns as well and also effects on the environment. Now this particular lake uh has a pretty deep s uh a shoreline which leads to deep water. It is what is considered a lake trout cold water lake in Ontario. The concern is we are down by the shore. We’re in the lowlying area. There’s lots of trees in there. The concern was if we are too close to the lake, people are going to see it. The the the new cottage. And that was a concern at the time because apparently the mayor of the municipality had just built a the beautiful new uh just a giant palace of a timber frame home on the lake.
And this quickly was going to catch up with with his um his feet there. >> And on the smaller leg, it is an issue. It seems a little silly, but people don’t like when there’s something new and they’re they don’t know about it just came up. So, a lot of the questions like there’s there’s it just seems that there’s a little bit more um scrutiny of the projects. So on this project you the the last constraint was addressing the environmental characteristics so that this clearing of this land and building of this building would not add to the siltation or heating up of the the sensitive cold water habitat. In the end it was a proposal that addressed all these constraints and those constraints actually enhanced and created a more rigorous design that started to follow the contours and each part of the the layout which we which we can discuss >> address particular concerns from the um regulatory uh bodies. >> Let me ask you did you have to do anything special to address the mayor’s feelings in your proposal? >> Well there there were issues of of scale you know John um in cottage country there’s two ways of thinking about design. So, one is that um cottage country is there’s a lot of history to it. It goes back to Scottish and Irish settlers heading up by train to resorts. American American Buffalo Detroit coming up to the lakes and there were resorts.
There were hotels on the lakes. You got to them by steam ships such as the the Seuin and Lake Muscoa and others. And there’s this idea that everything was sort of traditional filigree, the beautiful Victorian uh peaks and and very sort of like formal beautiful style of building. Well, the days of having the trades that will actually build like that and the cost um those are beautiful values. They’re beautiful places. I’ve built many uh beautiful more traditional style buildings and I think this is what in this case the the mayor was looking for where where are the steep peaks and where’s the the the the beautiful gables you know all that fancy stuff. Now, on the other hand, the the other two that we can take, we can look at uh iconic Canadian architects, and you might have heard me say this on on previous podcasts, but I draw a lot of inspiration from uh the late Canadian architects such as Arthur Ericson, uh Ron Tom. They were building out on the West Coast. They were dealing in the real world of steep sites, access, views, nature, which brings up the second way of building, which is more modern, but using natural materials. big Douglas fur beams, open glass areas, uh, weathered steel.
And the the advantage of these more modern structures is in some ways they can be more subtle in the environment because they don’t have the big steep peak grooves. They don’t have all the fancy details on the turrets. They’re simple glass areas. And when you’re in them, John, you have a real sense of connection to the lake. They’re just simplified and uh, modern. At their best, that’s what they are. So the challenge was showing the the mayor that this type of more modern structure could be used to reduce the profile in the lake, blend in a little bit. The Douglas fur works in the trees. Everything doesn’t have to be traditional. And if I can give you another uh mini story, John. >> Yeah. >> I did another project in a small town outside of Toronto in Claremont, Ontario. And uh without without any disrespect to any uh designers out there and builders, Claremont is a small traditional farming community with a lot of history to it. There are some places where you just overall you just couldn’t build modern structures and uh I had worked with a owner there to do a very sensitive addition to a century home that he did included a breezeway and walk out and had beautiful gardens and so on. While we were doing that, a a builder uh developer had gotten in and they pretty much built a modern house that looks like a mini mall. >> Oh, no.
>> In a street that had like chicken coops and and um horses, the hobby farm, old church century church, and it was traumatizing for the owners there. >> Yeah. >> So, this is what I try not to do. Like when I get on a lake, John, the first thing to do is to respect the environment. And there’s a word that your listeners might uh uh like it’s a it took me a while to figure out exactly the the the full meaning of this, but architects will call it the the genius loai of a place. It’s a Latin word, and what it means is it’s the spirit of of the site. So when we get to the site, the site will let you know as you start to design and you will know what works best. And to answer your your your your fuller question, even the mayor, you can even turn the most critical observer and they’re critical because they care about the league, >> right? If you have the right discussion and you’re sensitive to the conditions and need, you can express your ideas or explore them and share their concerns and ideas, everybody can be happy, even the mayor. that that’s why I think it was totally worth unpacking that because you know at first glance it on the surface it may seem like there was some pride and some ego involved in there but I think to your point as you as you found digging back the layers it was really just a true love for the lake and wanting to preserve the nature and environment there. So >> yeah. Yeah. and and John, which which brings on onto the next thing is the approach by the town. And then they they they started to get this uh a little bit later. The their approach on the site was if you’re building anything new, it’s got to stay it’s got to be pushed back away from the lake. Right now, you’re 20 ft from the the the shore. is a little bit lowerlying compared to the adjacent land and there’s a lot of tree cover in there and we and we either leave the building there because we don’t see it now and we like that or push it way back.
Now the problem with pushing back on this property was that it pushes you up a hill >> and which is completely uh acceptable. So, if you’re back 120 ft or even 100 ft, you’re up about 40 or 50 or 60 ft, probably around more like 40 or 50 ft, which takes you above that shrub line. >> And then you’re really sticking out like you were just out there and you do you look like the love boat cruising along the shore with this big big um giant structure floating by. So, that was the that was the the first thing. And you’ll see in some of the the photos like we we we really had to dig into the site. Um but there were some surprises underneath the surface as well that that started to affect this positioning where we wanted to keep we wanted to keep the structure near the shore and we wanted to keep the roof lines low which is why the flat roofs made sense. But the other constraint that we haven’t talked about was as we went up the hill there was some subsurface there’s a point where the subsurface I guess you could call it rubble or callus it turned into rock face. Yeah. So let’s let let’s get into the let’s get into the build. So we so like to taking us up to this point we you you went to the site you got the survey you you got a feel for the land. uh you went through the zoning commissions, regulatory approval from the uh from the town uh the municipality. And so now you’re beginning to build. So let’s let’s get into that a little bit. Let’s I guess let’s maybe we can follow some of these pictures along and we can get into that.
>> What I uh recommend to clients early in the process is when we get on a site, let’s have a look around. Maybe we can clear out some of the dead the shrub trees. There are trees that are affected by by uh boring beetles like the ash bore. Some of them are already dead or they’re going to be dead soon because they’re full of carpenter ants and so forth. These are some trees that we can clear and then we can do some explorations on the terrain. I suggest getting a uh a mini excavator in there, a good crew, maybe even like a little skid sphere, have a little team and pick around on uh on the rocks and see what is what is underneath there. Generally, you can find a couple of things. It’s either um what most people would just call like soil like effort gravel or soil which you can build in. Uh there’s also bedrock which you can build in.
Now, there’s a problem when part of the terrain is on one type of soil and the other is on another type of soil. So, we really got to dig down. And what we thought we had here would solid bedrock, but it turns out after uh hammering on the stone there with what is known as a uh a hole rammer or a rock hammer, the rock was fairly loose. So you can’t have that. So you got to clear it out. You got to dig back to more solid terrain. And what we did here is we cleared out and we were left with just a long strip of terrain there which was very long and narrow and there were some construction challenges which I’ll I’ll tell you about shortly but it had to be scraped out and we scraped out quite a ways and we had to bring an engineered fill which goes down in sixft lifts or drops I guess you would call it with what is known as a stone slinger and it’s tamped down and the engineer comes in and certifies that you can build on this level.
Now, this is what we did on on this site and uh however, what I would recommend when we’re at that point with on a new project, I would ask viewers, well, instead of a lot of work on the terrain, sometimes it does include blasting, it includes removal of material, you you take it to landfills, it takes up space in landfills, although we try to reuse a lot of the stone for the sightscaping. Would you consider making simplifying things and going on peers or having a partial basement instead of a full basement? You are in cottage paradise out in the environment. You’re not in a city. It is not necessary uh it may not be necessary for you to have the full basement and a giant rectangular footprint. Can we work with the the site a little bit more closely >> because you want to follow the form of the land. And just so I’m following you correctly and going the route of the full basement, let’s just use that as an example. You would need to do a lot more blasting in potentially granite, right? >> Well, exactly, John. And uh if you know the material, granite is pretty dense and and uh what is done is is um with the construction company, as you know, John, I’m a registered architect. It’s um Lakeside Architecture, Inc. I have a separate completely unrelated company which is focused on the logistics of getting things built and also tracking costs and and making those final decisions on the best way to build.
That is Lakeside Construction Management Inc. What I’ve learned on that side is everything adds cost and adds work. So if we’re blasting that means there’s drilling down into the rock, there’s putting C4 or other explosives in there. You’ve got to have the match on there. There’s certain time period in the year when you can do the blasting. You do the blasting, you’ve got to take it away. Any amount of blasting is probably going to start at 40 to 50 grand up here on a property. And there are people that will sink in 150,000 200,000 $250,000 and more on Lake Muskoka on Lake Aayazay so that they can get their ideal uh building there. But if that’s your ideal building, like maybe you’ve got the wrong site if you got to sink so much money into something which I think is wasteful and maybe your viewers would be relieved to think, well, maybe we can work with the terrain, work with some levels, clear the land a little bit and see what it suggests. In a lot of cases, John, what it means is we build on different uh terraces. We try to clear some terraces on the site. That’s why that the the surveyor’s topo is important. we can do the 3D modeling and we’ll work with the terrain instead of working without it.
Here’s an example here. So the the the the issue was and and this is interesting. The issue is that we’re we’re cutting into the terrain. Now there there’s another constraint is how much removal of of the site do you want? And this is this is what transpired. This is what was required to keep the height down. So we did dig into the hill there >> and what we do here is a lot of uh for international viewers and and uh our our US followers um what we do is we’ll use IC a lot of ICF foundation construction which is basically insulated forms. They’re set up they go up pretty quickly. You fill them with rebar that’s engineered and then you fill it with concrete and that stays in place. You can quickly build structures. You can build retaining walls with it. Well, the other constraint now is we’re we’re building this wall on the slope. We’re cutting into the slope now. Is there water underneath the ground that is fighting against our wall there? Because that water will increase huge hydrostatic pressure on the walls. If it doesn’t push over your walls, it can cause water to get into basement.
So, another good reason to consider going on peers. However, in this case, what we did is we also dug trenches on the upload side that go underneath the slab. They’re reinforced and with weeping tile with a weeping tile system they drain out underneath the the slab and they’re they’re also have a heat trace in them. This is a little bit of sight knowledge but everything is possible. It adds some cost but we explore going from the simple to the more complex and there’s always a level of constraint which is requiring uh some design response. >> Sure. Yeah. This is um and so I I suppose that that was a concession that you made because of obviously you want to work with the land and you want to maximize the most flat area possible and it and those are in limited supply here.
So that was just kind of a a design concession that you made to keep that that location. >> Well, what what you’ll notice if you have a look at the image there too, the the actual outline of the building started to follow the line of the least excavation. And that might seem fairly straightforward, but 99 out of 100, let’s say 99.9% of cottages and luxury homes that that are built, a box, a big box is placed on the site. It has a gabled roof on it and um it looks high from the roadside and they look enormous from the lakeside and that’s what turns off a lot of people from new development. by the use of these long walls. If you can parallel the site, you can step down the site in a beautiful way. And here are some there there were some great um American architects as well that were quite highly respected modernists such as Richard Neutra down in California, LA, Palm Desert.
They knew how to build with the slopes and they were building with long walls. So, one little tidbit or one little uh jewel for your listeners is can we use walls, long walls, let’s stop thinking about boxes only. Can we use long walls to adapt to the site, reduce the amount of excavation, um follow contours, create new sight lines? It’s a really exciting way to build and it comes from the site and not from our preconceived notion of what we think we should build there before we’ve really explored the site. And it it brings it back to uh what was the Latin phrase that you mentioned earlier? I’ve forgotten. >> Oh, the the the genius loai >> and bu the building with the spirit of the site. And it seems like that’s just kind of a guiding principle throughout where you know even the blasting example, right? You sure it adds cost to do blasting, but you’re also kind of really making a visceral impact on the environment by doing that. not just the the the the earth itself, but then also the every everyone around has to be subject to all that blasting.
So that’s one example. And then with the walls and working with the land is another way to not disrupt that environment as much. So I’m seeing that as a common thread throughout. >> Yeah. I I I think there’s some value in not fighting what the land is telling you. >> Yeah. And not everything has to be so forcefully and aggressively and combatively done. There’s a design process there and it can be based on the constraints. It can be based it’ll be based on budget. It’ll be based on the lay of the land. It can be based on on your your neighbors their concerns and uh even the the the mayor him or herself. You know, I like to think that everybody’s points are valid and I try to address them. And I think just being responsible it’s the right thing to do and it creates new exciting form unexpected form meaning you one day you’ll you’ll look at the property say wow this really makes sense I’m glad we didn’t blast that hillside or you see how going higher here would have really diminished not only our neighbors views but just overall would seem too too big for the lake.
So that’s that’s uh what one of the things that um that that I’ve encountered with our with our clients. Something else that’s interesting too, John, is the idea that well do we need to is it still like one long box with some long walls on it or can we consider can we think of things almost like parts? So can we break down your ideas in parts? And the thing I like about this presentation, John, is that what we’re discussing is we’re not discussing actual building. We’re discussing a process of how do we break down the site? How do you build the unbuildable? How do you approach challenging sites? And I would say if you have a challenging site, it’s a great opportunity. Don’t be discouraged, but there’s work to be done in terms of communicating ideas and and testing them out, too.
So, one way I like to test out ideas is I’ll take your ideas and or clients ideas and we’ll lay out in in our 3D modeling, we’ll we’ll lay out all the ideas and spaces at work, kitchens and living rooms. Do you face you’re going to face the lake? Are you going to face the sunset? Do you want the bedrooms to face the morning sun? If you like the morning sunshine on your face, some people don’t. Um guest spaces and then can we break apart the structure? Like can we think of it almost in terms of separate pavilions with their even their own character sometime and then redistribute them somewhat on the site. Add breezeways and the whole thing becomes more organic and then you’ve got the ideal view from your living room. You’ve got the great long view u from the bedrooms nice entrance breezeways. Sometimes John the space in between the buildings. So if we break it down and atomize it a little bit meaning just pull things apart.
It’s that space in between that’s really interesting. And in our environment on the lakes, like in the winter, it’s it’s quite cold, but if you’re sheltered from the wind, it makes a big difference. And the the the shoulder seasons, spring and and fall, it can be quite nice being outdoors, but it helps you have a bit of a windbreak. So, can we use the ability to spread things out on the site, plan a little bit to create some useful outdoor spaces? And there’s a precedent for this with Yeah. As you know, draw from our previous discussions, farmers, they would they would build and have their have a um rows of trees blocking the northwest wind. Farmers that wanted to have a usable space in in the winter outdoors, they would have that space facing the the south or southwest, blocking the northwest wind, they could do work outside. when it’s above freezing, if there’s sunshine out, it’s actually pretty comfortable to work outside. But if you have a wind on you at the same temperature, it’s not super great if you ask uh anybody that’s work outside. >> So that that’s that’s my the next big idea is that let’s find those terraces, levels, views, like let’s be guided by some terraces, some views, like let’s work with the site instead of feeling flustered by, wow, it’s really steep coming in. the builder said that we’re not going to be able to drain to our septic. We’re down too low. We’re down too high. We out of blast. We can’t get the hydro in. Like all the all these issues.
They’re actually opportunities, but it’s a process of of incrementally um really observing the assets that your site has. Mhm. And there’s a lot of thought and intention that has gone into so far the location and the footprint and the orientation of this build. And now for folks that are joining us on YouTube and they can see we’re starting to get into some framing. There’s some there’s some uh construction that’s happening here. Is this all uh you mentioned you like to use timber frames. Is that uh is that what what’s gone into this build? Yeah, we’re so we’re we’re starting at the uh uh we’re starting at the lowest level and uh apologies to viewers that are interested in in only the the the eye candy uh version. >> You’ll have to wait till the end to see that. >> Well, there’s that and you can go to our website lakesidearchchitecture.ca, you’ll see the latest and the greatest.
Also, if you hit up our Instagram, you can see what I’m working on week to week. But in this session here, understanding the steps might even be more helpful to you because that’s where you can make decisions and you have the most impact on how things are done. So what we discussed so far is preparing the site, working with the site constraints, the uh necessity and opportunity to break up the floor plan so it follows contours and different uh surface elevations. And if we’re typically what I’ll do is we’ll do concrete down below >> if CL want it. I like the idea of having full timber frame structures which you can see on our our website. However, for people that um are unfamiliar with the technology basically there there’s two technologies that work really well in cottage country. One are ICF foundations. Uh most people are familiar with them. Most of the builders I I would say and and a lot of cottages may be familiar with them. They’re not too common outside of cottage country. Um, what they are are systems of insulated forms that are lightweight. They pop open.
They’re separated by spacers that can receive reinforcing bars. Complete is poured into them and then they are set in place. What a lot of viewers may not know is that you can actually with ICF you can get pretty creative. And um in my past I’ve I you know John I like to learn about all I’m an architect but I also like to learn how things are are built and put together particularly on the construction management side of things. So once you take some of the training I’ve done the new dur ICF training I’ve trained in timber frame construction. I’ I’ve physically uh built construction um work equipment. Everything is possible. And even with the ICF, which seems like is a basic system, and you get your nice little insulated rectangle, you can be creative with it. You can thicken walls, you can um create more um articulated structures, you can have breezeways in between it. So my suggestion is it’s a good system for setting up concrete really fast and think of it in terms of panels. Now, timber frame is what I like to put on top of it. Typically, we’re using uh Douglas fur.
I’ve brought in a lot of Douglas fur out of BC and I previously I’ve built a lot with uh panels, structural panels. Um some of them have come from the states. There’s panels in Ontario and uh Quebec as well, depending on your particular project requirements. The the idea of Kimber frame or this version of it is a little bit different from traditional uh framing that you see on a lot of cottages. This is post and beam. It has more in common with probably mid-century modern post and beam ways of building. What it is is it’s posts and then the posts are straddled with either like you either double the posts or you double the beams and and different structural members straddle each other. So, it’s a good way of putting together construction components. If you want the traditional frame and you want the mortise and dowel uh connections and all that, you can do that. But this is a fast really effective way of getting the look. And uh it is true to its nature. It builds a open open interior with long spans which really fits that northern environment quite well. >> Okay. So is what we’re what we’re looking at here. This is the the posts, the beams, and then the joists over top. >> Yeah, this is just the first uh level where the structure has been uh extended to the exterior. It doesn’t include the main structure at all. >> And then this are these the panels that you’re talking about? >> Yeah, this is just closing in the uh the structure. What what I’ve done in a lot of cases, if you want to have if you want to expose the timbers, in most cases, I’ll put the interiors on the inside and exterior walls, I’ll have panels with clear birch on one side, or sometimes we’ll use um a nickel gap, Douglas fur cladding, which basically is Douglas fur with little strips in it.
These are materials that you learn about just being on field and seeing what what is being built on the lake. But the idea is to have a lighter looking timber frame structure above and then a heavier concrete structure below. The advantage of this uh that that you’ll see viewers will see in later photos and uh and other projects as well is that >> when you build with the the concrete on the bottom, you can build a ledge around it and you can place stone on the basement level. The advantage of having stone on part of your structure is that it’s authentic. You can match it to the site. You can get it from a local quarry and visually it architecture to the ground. Like it looks like the real thing because it is the real thing. And it also protects the structure from the the snows that we get up in cottage country. And um I know on our particular uh cottage we have 3 to 4 feet of snow blowing in across the water in the winter. Uh a lot of places have same amount of snow you need to protect the lower part of the structure. Stone is a beautiful way to do it and using local stone supports the local economy which we love too. >> And so is that what we’re looking at here in this picture is you’ve incorporated the stone into the foundation. Uh what what you’re left on the picture there is is more use of the quarry stone for building up levels on on the site. And on the previous photos, what we’re doing is we’re building up a base so that we can put stone cladding.
It’s real stone. It’s band cut on heavy equipment. But it helps if you have the uh ledge like on the next few photos if you have the ledge there. And this might seem pretty basic, but thinking in terms of stone below, like timbers above, and uh flatter roofs, which we can get into is a good way to build. So, John, the thing is there’s a short construction season here and likewise in in uh in in places in the states like a lot of the upstate places that you have south of the border there. There’s a uh a constrained building season. So, we want to get as much built as possible. Uh, of course, it just turns out that um we become experts at building in the winter because things just go that way sometimes and you build in the winter. But if we can get things done, buildings closed in in the win in the summer and have things closed in by the fall, meaning the roof is on, the windows are on, it means that you can uh have workers working all winter, uh, and they’re not going to be terribly uncomfortable. Now, what we have here,
>> Douglas fur timbers, and they they’ll span 10 to 14 ft is what I like. And between them, we’ll have plland which are smaller members. And then across those, the actual Douglas for tongue and groove planks will fan about six feet at the max for a three and a half inch board. Four feet if you’re going like one and a half inches. There’s a little bit of finesse there that you can play with to see the look that you like. I like the I like the big spans personally. And um what you end up with is big open spaces. It can go up quickly. And the idea is if we can then caught it with panel systems and I’ll discuss a couple of uh ways of building with panels then you are really ahead. >> I bet you those beams are fun to put in.
Well, they’re uh they’re heavy and uh a pretty solid crew with some very long beams will will have a crane in there and and uh there’s there’s a few ways of getting things in place, but typically uh it’s helpful if you have a crew that is experienced in uh in timber frame construction, timber frame or or post and be. Now, here’s a here’s a a good one. So John, part of the part of the challenge is we want to build we want to build modern meaning simplified open spaces, unobstructed views to the environment, but it things don’t need to look austere. And there are wonderful design magazines out there, but but the result they make all modernism look very slick and way too aere. So, what I like to do is by using these natural materials, it warms things up.
Like, you can have a totally modern structure and is super strong. Like, these are super strong structures. They’re going to last indefinitely and they go up quicker and you enjoy the beauty of the warmth of the wood. There’s something about that Douglas fur, John, that just goes with those Canadian shield lakes and and for international builds, you know, it’s a global market these days, John, and everything gets shipped out pretty pretty readily. Historical construction, this will work in upstate New York. It’ll work on ski shallies in Colorado out on the west coast. There’s a big market for it. And I I think people are familiar with it for traditional construction, but there’s a whole new way of of building where it’s just a little bit lighter than traditional timber frame. It’s post and beam. The connections are different, less reliance on steel fasteners, more focus on on uh other fastening systems. So, there’s a lot of benefit aesthetically to this system as well. and connects you to the site because it’s natural and it’s organic. >> Excellent. Well, James, let’s give the the listeners and the viewers a little eye candy >> to go with it. >> Let’s do it. This is it. This is what it’s all about. >> This I’m I’m assuming is one of your uh 3D renderings. >> Yeah, that’s right. That’s that’s uh prior to to the build. So, what I’d like uh uh viewers to to consider is the most important thing is your vision. and you’re the one with the vision. You’re the expert on the site. Um, you deserve to fully explore your opportunities and you do have opportunities.
What what I would do is like there there’s a lot of media out there and there is an overwhelming amount of uh of material that you can look at. When you see something like this like you can take a part of this like this is obviously a big dream here. The first thing is to establish your own dream and to realize that this is about something more than building a cottage or a vacation home. This is about a vision. Do you have a vision and are you willing to explore it fully? Is it is it important to you? If you have that in you process and you can take something like this, you can take a part of it. You can say well uh that looks uh enormous and uh I wouldn’t build that. Uh but maybe you would build a part of it. Maybe you would have a a cabin or a studio and think of it more as a system, you know, can I use can I see myself taking part of this and adapting it to our site? Can I adapt this? >> The issue, John, with a lot of the prefab stuff out there and there are well-known metal prefab systems and there are prefab uh panel systems, the issue is they are not flexible. They’re not flexible to begin with and there’s no commitment from the designers of the systems to adapting to sites because that’s not what they do.
They they’re manufacturing a product. Here’s the product. Uh what what I like to offer as an alternative to clients is bring the vision. Let’s see what we can do it. And uh it approaches art and poetry more than construction at some point. I like to keep it real and get it built. But there should be a big vision like a vision of beauty of being really functional and useful and being strong and sturdy. No drywall. Well, let me correct that. Some people want some drywall for various reasons and that’s okay. But we have an opportunity to go natural materials, Douglas fur, clear merch, reclaimed hemlock floors, quarry stone. If you’re in Muscoa, please try to match the stone that you have on the site. Like what I like to do, John, is I like to get actual samples and then go to the quarry and see if we can mix get mixes that are really close to the character of the site. I do have a lot of poured concrete floors. Oops. Um, we is our engineers next door. I’m just putting it out there that it’s not related to architecture related uh assemblage. our insurance company would make us say that. >> But John, what what what we do a lot of is we’ll we’ll do uh poured concrete floors and I like to go on the site, get some of the gravel, get some of the the um stone that we have on site and match it and then put it into the mix of the concrete. >> I like that. >> Add some Portland cement there and have a very clean looking stone that relates to your your site. This is this is all fantastic and I think your point is well taken and that um you need to have a vision, you need to know what you want.
So folks for folks that are watching this, for folks that are following along, if you uh how can they how can you help them develop their vision? What if somebody has ideas but they don’t really know how to put it all together in a way to really convey that to you? >> Well, John, here’s a great first step. Everyone thinks that or a lot of people that we’ve talked to think that design is one huge immediate commitment. And what I suggest is check out our website lakesidearch architecture.ca. Give me a call. Typically I’m either on site uh in a manufacturing facility someplace looking at stone or steel or windows or I’m in my studio. So give me a call and what I can do is I can give them a quick demonstration on our 3D modeling of the types of projects that we do. Then show me your ideas and I’ll give you a quick it’s a quick freebie. Let’s call it that. You know they they say that that nothing is free. There’s no freelancer. I’ll give you a quick freebie because I wanted to show you there’s so much opportunity and it’s a fun process. Let’s do a little quick exploration and visitors can decide for themselves. Is this valuable? Can we see ourselves exploring what can we do with our site plan? Do we go to the next step? How do we situate a building next step? How much would this cost? Do we want to go into full floor plans? How far do we go? There’s steps to the design process. They’re really fun.
They’re super productive. And there’s always an offramp at each stage. If you think it’s going too far, there’s too much commitment. You can always put back. The thing that I find is is that I caution people that want to build their their dream there, particularly if they’re building the unbuildable, why settle on one consultant or one builder on what they believe? Let’s test it. Let’s get your ideas. Let’s get exactly right and let’s use the technology we have now, latest software, latest construction management software that’s tracking lifetime, the the cost really quickly. And by quickly I mean you can get an idea of things in five days. You can get uh a preliminary idea of something that might really work out for you and your partners and your family. Um on the other hand other projects uh you can if you’re building a long-term dream if you want to stay in the process you can stay there a year you can stay there in two years continue designing while you’re building. But my approach is to test in 3D make it real. Make it beautiful. make it buildable. And then most importantly, I want you to unleash your vision and we’re serious about that. It’s it’s it’s a it’s a real calling for a lot of us and I hope it is for your visitors as well. >> Excellent. And so folks who want to take you up on that freebie, you have you’ve put together a uh a PDF guide of reflection questions to help guide users to or potential customers to expressing their dream homes. Is that And so folks can get that at lakesidearchchitecture.ca. Correct. >> Yeah, that’s right, John. Uh if uh viewers want to get on to lakeside architecture.ca, have a good look around. There’s links to the social media. You can see the latest work. There’s a lot of of the latest going on going ons on there.
I think that’s a new word I just invented. They’re going on. They’re they’re all on there. They can pick up the PDF. And it’s helpful if you if you have an idea of what what of of what you’re kind of interested in already. If you have a scrapbook and if there are ideas that you had on Pinterest or there’s there’s great sites such as house.com and and and numerous other sites that can go on, start to pull it together, but use that as a guide just so I know where you’re coming from and what’s what’s important to you. For me, there is no, and I’ve said this before, there’s no silver bullet to design. It’s more of an exploration. And at the end of the day, the viewers are the experts, but we’ve got to draw that out. And we need a process that makes sense and is incremental so we can souse out all the the beautiful details that can be pulled together into a project. >> Excellent. Well, James, this has been a fantastic conversation. I learned a ton about building on steep, unbuildable sites. For folks that have that are listening along, subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts, and check out lakeside architecture.ca. James, until next time. >> Thanks everyone. It’s been fun. I hope to hear from you. Give us a call lakeside architecture.ca.
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