Toronto studio Barbora Vokac Taylor Architect has wrapped a gabled house in blackened wood and included wedge-shaped clerestory windows to respond to the lakeside landscape in the Muskoka Region of Ontario.
Completed in 2024, the four-bedroom home, nestled in a maple grove, has three levels with an additional loft space. It was designed to accommodate multiple people in an extended family without losing the cosiness of a vacation home.
Barbora Vokac Taylor Architect worked to place the cottage as close to the water as possible while adhering to the strict guidelines of building along the water.
The otherwise-rectangular home is broken two-thirds along its length with a wedge-shaped porch rotating the garage and loft space off axis. The split accommodates the steep terrain, allowing a portion of the house to submerge into the grade. This orientation allows for extended views of the forest and lake.
“The angular form of the cottage contrasts the gentle contours of the natural landscape, allowing visitors to read that landscape against the neutral silhouette,” the studio said.
Lifted on a concrete base, the shou sugi ban cedar home is capped with a black, standing seam zinc roof with deep overhangs. The ridgeline lifts up at the bend, breaking into two shard-like windows that peel back to reveal Douglas fir joists and allow sunlight and breeze into the house.
“The cottage creates a steady datum by which you can read the topography of the site,” studio founder Barbora Vokac Taylor explained. “You can reach out and touch the eave on one side, while you can find yourself 35 feet below the eave on the other side.”
“The warmth of the wood balances out the coolness of the metal,” Vokac Taylor said. “With time, the materials will naturally and gracefully age and develop a natural patina to add to its story.”
The orientation of the building created “viewfinder” windows throughout the house that frame specific natural moments.
“Some viewfinders bathe the interior in sunlight, others frame specific trees, and some overlook sunrises, grounding the home in its rugged setting,” the studio said.
The house digs into the terrain with a subterranean family room and service areas that lead to a sunken, covered outdoor spa. The main level contains the primary suite, a dine-in kitchen, and a double-height living room that looks out onto the curving deck through sliding glass doors.
On the wall, cedar panels with recessed lighting were arranged in a parametric pattern. Designed by artist Victoria Fard, this feature wall mimics embers flying from a fire, helping the cabin glow through the clerestory windows.
The partially enclosed wedge porch – known as the Muskoka Room – opens the main level to the south.
The upper level sits at grade on the north side of the house and has a sleeping space on the eastern corner, opening a corridor into a balcony over the living room.
The steep roof pitch is highlighted on the interior with white sloped ceilings that give way to the exposed roof joists. A loft space accessed by a ladder allows residents to sit up in the gable and see along the length of the main house to the double-sided stone fireplace.
“This architectural dialogue between built and natural elements extends through material choices at the interior, creating a contemporary retreat that maintains essential connections to its wild context,” the team said.
“Beyond the framed views of the water and openness to the outdoors, the cottage integrates the environment into the design through the use of warm, tactile and rustic materials, such as hand-painted cement tile, heated poured concrete floors and volumes clad with whitewashed knotty pine.”
Also in the Muskoka Region, Dubbledam Architecture + Design split a traditional A-frame form into a double-gabled cabin wrapped in cedar, while nearby in the Algonquin Provincial Park, Anya Moryouseff Architect used a similar blackened wood exterior to disguise an off-grid cabin.
The photography is by Doublespace Photography.
Project credits:
Architect: Barbora Vokac Taylor
Interiors by BVTA: Andreea Denes, Barbora Vokac Taylor
Landscape: Five Point Muskoka Ltd., @fivepoint.ltd
Art direction and prop Styling: Alanna Davey
Soft styling: Kamilah Headley
Contractor: Mazenga North Building Group, @mazengabuilt
Structural: Contact Engineering
Mechanical: Van Ravens Mechanical Design
Millwork: Otley
Window coverings + upholstery: Hemme Custom
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