Point William House in Ontario by Shim-Sutcliffe Architects

The modern house has always been linked to the remarkable experiments that define the modernist project. Shim-Sutcliffe’s masterful work at Point William intertwines landscape and architecture with ancient rock and water reshaping and reimagining a site on the Canadian Shield over two decades. Found conditions and new buildings are interwoven and choreographed to create a rich spatial experience moving between inside and out.

This project begins with architecture and then expands its territory to include landscape, furniture, lighting, hardware, and fittings. Design invention, material exploration and delight take place at multiple scales. The scale of a door handle and an architectural section are explored simultaneously. This project is a laboratory for living that results in a rich spatial experience that moves fluidly between interior and exterior spaces, while demarcating a place in the Canadian landscape.

Point William is one of three slender peninsulas jutting into Lake Muskoka located on the Canadian Shield with a rich geographic and cultural history. This project draws inspiration from the building culture located in this part of Ontario from sophisticated Muskoka boats and elaborate Victorian cottages to heavy timber wood underwater infrastructure. An existing 1960’s building occupied the tip of the peninsula and was replaced by a new intervention that erases portions of the existing structure to reveal a large rock outcropping. The building’s exterior palette combines local granite, weathered atmospheric steel, untreated ipe wood, and bronze clad windows, choreographed to create four distinct elevations and syncopated to respond to each orientation and programme. The material palette was also selected to ensure longevity, gracious aging, and anticipation of its weathering over time.

The building’s spatial sequence begins with an entry porch which is defined by a series of deep weathering steel fins that straddle inside and outside on one side and weathering steel panels washed by natural light on the other. Canadian granite is pulled inside, defining the floor plane, while the ceiling plane is shaped by both natural light through skylights and Douglas fir panels. This cinematic space created by the deep weathering steel fins continually frames and reframes views of the landscape.

Light is manipulated and sculpted through an articulated section in this project. The reflected ceiling plan is an important aspect of this building, contributing a rich interrelated and overlapping spatial sequence. Several J-shaped double-glazed windows create poignant moments of transition throughout the project. High vertical clerestory windows in the living area pushes light deep into the space through the seasons.

The living space located at the water’s edge and is designed to act as a light reflector with high vertical clerestory windows above contrasting with panoramic windows below. This new building through its sculptural form and careful material selection fuses built form with landform to create a specific place on the Canadian Shield.