Filmed and Edited by: Kirsten Dirksen
To create a photography studio with maximum daylight, Larry Williams built a glasshouse. Doubling as a boat garage (the lower floor), it hugs the lake’s edge. Viewed from the inside, the outside world tumbles in: the wake of a powerboat ripples up to the window, kayakers wave as they pass, a child jumps from the dock. Toward the back of the house, granite invades the view: the home is built on top of the Canadian Shield- a swath of ancient rock stretching across half of Canada.
Williams speaks proudly of the 300 million-year-old limestone and 3 billion-year-old granite outside his door. To heat and cool the home, architect Pat Hanson relied on a geothermal system: tubes of water snake into the lake to benefit from the lake floor’s nearly constant year-round temperature. In summer, the water in the closed-loop system is cooled by the lake and in winter it is warmed. The granite floor acts as a heat sink to slowly radiate the sun’s energy through the house during the evening. The white roof reflects light and heat to keep the place cool during summer.
To create a home inside four walls of glass, Hanson placed the domestic functions inside a floating cube supported by steel beams so as not to touch the walls. Downstairs, it houses the kitchen and guest bath and upstairs, an open bedroom. The stairway is bathed in Corian which continues upstairs with a Corian bathtub and bed structure doubling as sculpture. Large sliding fritted glass doors close to provide privacy for the mezzanine bedroom, though are typically left open to allow for natural ventilation.
Award winning artist, Jennifer McChristian, was born and raised in Montreal, Canada. From an early age, she knew she wanted to be an artist. Upon completing high school, McChristian began her art education at Dawson’s College in Montreal, Canada. In 1986, she and her family took permanent residency in California, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Art Degree with Honors from Otis Art Institute in 1990.
We ask our housebound editors and correspondents across the globe to reflect on what they cherish about the places in which they live and to pen a love letter to their cities: London, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto and Milan.
“The detached homes have been conceptualised to visually appear as one single volume defined by its traditional triangular architecture,” said the studio. “Only from up close will the observer notice a crisp breakpoint between the properties.”
Well, when you get older, you are more fabulous, actually. You go through a lot of hard times in your life… and then, at this stage you get out of those bad situations quicker and they are less painful. You figure them out, and you move on. And I’m having the best time ever. I’m 71 now, it’s the best time ever, and I think at 81 it will be great. My mom [had] her best times when she was in her 90s. So I look forward to that.
Intellicurious 