ABC Home by Kariouk Architects
ABC Home is a house in Smiths Falls, Canada, by Kariouk Architects. Set on a two-hundred-acre rural site in eastern Ontario, it answers a forested wetland landscape with a low, three-pavilion plan. Glassed-in links, wood siding, and local slate help the home sit quietly among the animals, trees, and seasonal change around it.
About ABC Home
An expansive forested and wetland site in rural eastern Ontario is home to a wide range of animal and plant life. Amphibians, waterfowl, and large mammals, including bear and moose, move through the area. A young couple, looking for an antidote to their former urban lives, acquires a two-hundred-acre parcel here and sets out to live alongside those neighbors.
The house sits far from the only road in the area. To reduce its scale further, and to keep the living area to just over 3,000 square feet, the plan breaks into three pavilions separated by glazed zones that serve as primary living areas and observatories for the surrounding wildlife and shifting vegetation. Rather than rise above the land, the single-storey profile stays low and accessible, allowing the clients to remain in the home as aging brings new challenges.
Variegated wood siding covers the exterior and helps soften the solid parts of the composition, while local slate continues into the foyer. The planted roof is designed to carry sedums and is fitted with sculptural scuppers that drain water and amplify the sound of summer rain.
Because the landscape changes as the sun reaches the coniferous trees to the east and the deciduous trees to the west, the house is oriented closely to the cardinal points. That alignment gives the glazed links between the pavilions a constantly shifting wash of light through the day and across the seasons. Wildlife follows its own rhythms here as well, so the home remains in steady contact with the same new neighbors that drew the clients to the site in the first place.
Photography courtesy of Kariouk Architects
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