A Mountain Retreat in Quebec, Canada
This Mountain Retreat in Quebec, Canada, is located on a remote site overlooking a serene lake and rugged hills beyond. The concept of the 3,800-square-foot residence was to create a wilderness vacation home that two families could enjoy simultaneously. It offers identical private dwelling units for each family and common space to gather.
To help ensure that the home is energy-efficient, comfortable and healthy to occupy, the shell and mechanical systems were designed based on the Passive House principles. The building shell construction includes an airtight, highly insulated foundation, wall and roof assembly that successfully passed a blower-door-test. Ultra-high-performance windows and doors were specified and located where they collect maximum heat from the sun.
For the mechanical equipment, high-efficiency heating and cooling systems were installed, including a heat-recovery ventilation system that delivers a constant flow of fresh air while capturing 80 percent of the heat from the air it exhausts to the outdoors.
Combined, this results in a building that uses approximately 20 percent of the energy consumed by a conventional code-compliant house, while providing a healthier, more comfortable living environment.
The core of the Mountain Retreat construction system is an innovative all-wood panel made from cross-laminated timber (CLT), which was manufactured in Quebec by Nordic Structures. CLT is an engineered wood product consisting of sawn planks bonded in alternating-direction layers to form structural panels that can be quickly assembled—in house-of-cards fashion—into a solid-wood building shell.
The benefit of this construction system is that the wood panels are carbon storing, extremely durable, and also create a delightful interior environment through the exposed wood interior finish of the CLT.
Project team
Architecture: OPAL
Interior Design: Lux decor (Designer Sun Ah Brock)
Contractor: Groupe Laverdure Construction, Inc.
Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
Photography
Corey Kaminski / MTL Interiors
Blue Valley South (Aerials)
Brands/Products
Stûv, wood stoves
CLT Panels from Nordic Structures
