House on the Pond: Compact Lakeside Retreat
House on the Pond sits on a pondside property in Austin, Canada, where Atelier Échelle shapes a compact yet generous secondary house for a family retreat. The house serves as both a guest dwelling and seasonal cabana, expanding the life of the ancestral home while directing daily rituals toward water, fire, and long views across the surrounding farmland. Inside and out, circulation traces a clear loop around light, landscape, and gathering.
Low sun reaches across the pond and catches on glass, terraces, and carved steps down to earth. From the ancestral house, the new volume reads as a compact companion that pulls daily life toward water, fire, and sky.
This secondary house in Austin, Canada, by Atelier Échelle functions as both family dwelling and pondside cabana for four. Within a tight footprint and height envelope, the plan choreographs interior rooms with covered terraces and galleries so movement feels generous rather than constrained. The project leans on a clear sequence of levels and thresholds, turning regulations into a layered journey from ground to mezzanine to sky.
Conceived as a compact retreat, the house responds to strict local rules that cap the footprint at 50 sqm and the mezzanine at 20 sqm. Atelier Échelle concentrates enclosed rooms at the core and lets three sides slip outward into covered outdoor zones that extend use during favorable seasons. The pondside setting drives the layout: interior circulation tracks toward the water, while daily activities pivot between sunken hearth, open gallery, and al fresco dining.
Stacking Levels Of Life
The house steps down into the ground, with insulated concrete blocks supporting a lowest level carved below grade. A band of clerestory windows wraps this basement, pulling in daylight while keeping walls free for bunk beds, a TV lounge, and a compact bathroom. Above, the main living level stretches under a double-height volume reserved entirely for gathering, so family rituals land in one tall, bright room. The mezzanine primary bedroom hovers over the sunken seating outside, giving sleepers a visual tie to both fire and pond.
Terraces As Rooms
Around the enclosed core, terraces act as outdoor rooms tuned to orientation and use. To the east, sunken seating encircles a fire-pit for cooler nights, its lower level wrapping occupants in ground and sky. Along the north side, a linear gallery links every room and guides movement toward the pond, doubling as a covered outdoor hallway. On the west edge, an eight-seat dining terrace can open directly to the living room, turning everyday meals into a broad, cross-ventilated volume.
Glass Edges And Vistas
The perimeter reads as porous, with each side tuned to light, view, and use. Fixed glass planes line the south facade for maximum winter sun and unbroken views across the adjacent farm to distant mountains. Along the north gallery, operable glass walls slide open so the house can breathe toward the pond while still remaining under cover. Inside, the wood burning fire gathers activity at the center, animating the transparent edges with shifting reflections and a quiet sense of warmth.
Seasonal Paths Through The House
Circulation and program shift with weather, yet the routes stay legible. In warmer months, the family moves along the exterior gallery from ancestral home to pond, dropping down to the fire-pit or dining on the west terrace before drifting inside. Colder days concentrate activity in the double-height living room and mezzanine, with the basement bunk room and lounge turning into an intimate retreat lit from above. Across seasons, the fixed and operable glass edges frame the same long view, so every path through the house still lands on water and horizon.
As light changes over the day, the compact structure reads alternately as carved, transparent, and lantern-like from the ancestral house. Rooms, terraces, and galleries hold a clear rhythm of thresholds without losing the simplicity of the small footprint. The pond remains the quiet anchor, always just a short walk along the gallery, past fire and glass, into open air.
Photography by Maxime Brouillet
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