To get to Double Island Cottage, one must traverse Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay by boat, tie up at a dock where the twin islands barely touch, and follow a rocky path up to the house. It’s a fitting introduction to the stunning site that inspired the home’s original design by a protégé of the modernist Canadian architect Ronald Thom—and its recent remodel by Superkül in Toronto. Built in the early 1980s, the concrete block house had expressive, if somewhat chaotic, rooflines. Perhaps their geometries were inspired by the craggy terrain and intensely windy location, resulting in roofs that folded into deep valleys. However, here and there they blocked the views of big water and made some of the interior spaces feel pinched. The house’s heavy feeling was one of the first things the firm addressed.
The aptly named Double Island, one of tens of thousands in this bay that form the world’s largest freshwater archipelago, looks like a pair of lungs connected by a slim bridge of land. The Toronto-based clients purchased the island with the intention of renovating and expanding the house that stood there. Given the difficulties of barging building materials to this remote destination, Superkül was a natural choice for the project. Although the firm’s portfolio ranges from single-family homes to high-rise buildings, they especially appreciate the challenges of keeping as much of the structure as they can on adaptive reuse and renovation projects.
“The first phase was probably the most challenging,” says partner Andre D’Elia, FRAIC. “It would have been easier if it was a new build, and it would have been a different house. Existing conditions are both a constraint and an opportunity—you develop a creative response. How do we give this building new life? It’s more about doing interventions and keeping the character and soul of the original project. It’s challenging in that respect; there’s always a surprise when you peel back the layers.”
Edge Condition
One aspect that did give the architects full creative license was the addition of a primary suite. After exploring several expansion schemes that grew from the house’s awkward geometries, the architects abandoned that approach. They drew a linear pavilion that essentially stands on its own but tucks under a roof on the house’s east side. “We wanted to create a pavilion that lightly touched the house and hovered over the rock, oriented to the sun,” Andre says. After considering the whole landscape, “we said, this is what we need to do. We sent the clients a hand sketch, and they said, “Oh my god, yes!’”
Resting on slender piers, the pavilion is reached through a glass-enclosed bridge from the main living space. Its “box-within-a-box” design allows it to be experienced as a world unto itself, a platform from which to observe, unimpeded, the movement of sun, clouds, and storms. Floating within the steel and glass structure are white-oak-lined compartments for sleeping, bathing, and dressing, with the bedroom facing south and the en-suite bathroom and concrete freestanding bathtub facing east. Floors and ceilings cantilever beyond the wooden core, creating a clear, clean edge that keeps the focus on the sweep of landscape.
The architects saw the rectilinear design as both an antidote and complement to the angular architecture of the original structure. On both volumes, new oversized glazing shares a datum line that ties the structures together, while the pavilion’s simplicity is a foil for the cottage’s geometric complexity. “Generative juxtapositions of this kind were key to the overall architectural design,” the architects wrote. “Whereas the main cottage is clad in concrete masonry blocks that express a visual gravitational pull down toward the rock, the addition appears to levitate while the glazed link opens up entirely on both sides to create a breezeway and multiple access points into the home. Together, the two structures convey a simultaneous experience of solidity and ethereality, durability and permeability, being inside and outside.”
It’s no coincidence that the design also introduces wind and sun breaks on this extreme site. “The pavilion ties into the house, creating outdoor courtyards or shelter areas” on the south and north, Andre says. “The bridge piece that links the house with the pavilion has doors that open on both sides, so if it’s too hot on the south, they can move to the shady area on the north side, and if it’s too windy, they can get a break from the wind on the opposite patio. We wanted to keep those active uses prominent in the design.”
Breathing Room
One of the renovation goals was to accommodate visiting siblings, children, and grandchildren. The gut remodel included removing partitions, inserting larger windows, and reshaping parts of the roof to open the insular interiors. They also bumped out the footprint on the east side of the main level, near the entrance, to add a bedroom facing the water.
“We wanted to create a more unified ceiling and roof structure,” Andre says. “There were columns coming down in awkward places on the floor plan. We removed those columns and introduced steel beams to replace some of the roof structure, simplifying parts of the roof around the main entrance and liberating the main living space.”
From the entryway, a stairway on the right leads to an existing loft, now used as a TV room and office, where the roof was raised and a window added on the north side. Straight ahead, the cathedralized living space was redesigned for entertaining and views of the rocky coastline.
The water-facing dining room on the right sits a few steps above the open kitchen and living room. Removing partitions doubled the size of the dining room, now lit with operable skylights that, along with sliding glass doors, admit cooling cross breezes. Originally, part of the dining room was sectioned to create an inglenook for the see-through fireplace between the living and dining rooms. Filling in the fireplace on the dining side and removing the walls around it simplified and opened the room’s footprint. And redesigning the wide steps between the kitchen and dining area established an informal gathering spot where grandkids can sit or play while someone is making dinner.
“It would have been easier if it was a new build, and it would have been a different house. Existing conditions are both a constraint and an opportunity—you develop a creative response.”
—Andre D’Elia, FRAIC
“This was their oasis; they wanted to be really immersed in nature,” Andre says. The living room’s masonry walls were distilled to posts infilled with glass that takes in the landscape; small picture windows were exchanged for floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass doors. “It felt like the heavy roof above closed the whole thing,” Andre says. “We let it breathe a bit.”
They also raised the roof over the kitchen and removed partial walls that hemmed it in. In fact, everything in this house is new except for the concrete-block fireplace. The architects highlighted its monumental presence by exposing portions that were concealed and removing the soot. “It was a process of elimination for the fireplace,” Andre says. “The same thing with the roof. We cleaned up valleys and ridges, put a new cap on the fireplace chimney, and peeled back the roofline that partially covered it.” The entire project was a process of “preservation, subtraction, and immersion” to honor aspects of the home’s core personality, minimize unnecessary waste, and reduce the number of barge deliveries to this outer island—a journey of about 90 minutes from the mainland (though half that by boat).
The west side of the house received a new elevation with the removal of balconies and piers off the dining room and downstairs bedroom. Cutting back the dipping roofline and adding larger windows opened the northwest corner to outdoor views. The design team also simplified the screened porch’s roofline on the southeast, behind the kitchen. Overall, “we kept the spirit of the roof but rationalized it,” Andre says. All this was done as surgically as possible by propping up the existing roof and reframing it, peeling back the layers to expose more spacious interiors.
Downstairs are two guest bedrooms with a bath between them. Both were stripped and given larger windows. In the northwest bedroom that benefited from the streamlined elevation, a concrete block wall supporting part of the living room fireplace made a niche that the architects reclad in whitewashed knotty pine—the perfect spot for a houseguest’s suitcase.
Soft Focus
The interior material palette imparts a sense of expansiveness in keeping with the vast natural landscape. A nod to the home’s original decor, whitewashed knotty pine figures prominently among the minimal finishes. In addition to lining the walls and ceilings of the secondary bedrooms, where it’s applied with a horizontal reveal, it also appears in the entryway and on the soaring kitchen and dining room wall, tying the two spaces together. Other ceilings and walls are skimmed in creamy plaster with a sandy stucco finish. “It softens the light and gives the ceiling a lot of depth because the microfines in the finish absorb light,” Andre says.
Throughout, the casework is white oak. Adding to the soft-focus effect, the Bulthaup kitchen’s white laminate cabinets are paired with a mottled-gray porcelain backsplash that echoes the Georgian Bay rock and concrete block fireplace. “We tried to keep the palette very simple,” Andre says. “The only real color we have is behind the bathtub in the primary suite,” where handmade tiles supply a wavy pop of pattern facing the water.
Outside, a new steel roof resists the location’s high winds, and the concrete block was parged for uniformity between old and new. “The house had a lot of water damage from leaky windows,” Andre says. “These materials are just more durable.” The house is cooled passively through cross breezes and heated with a few in-floor baseboard units (an electrical cable on the lake floor supplies service to the island from the mainland). “The clients use the house from May to October and close it down in the winter,” Andre says. “In mid-April it still gets quite cold and sometimes there are still ice floes.”
Bobcats were barged over to dig the septic system, and steel beams were erected with winches and chains, working from scaffolding. Given the frigid winter temperatures, construction on these islands is mostly limited to summer months; however, the crew arrived on snowmobiles to finish the interior over the winter. In a final move, the sand and gravel outside the house was scraped back to expose the rocky landscape. Gray-brown granite for the patios came from a nearby quarry and mirrors the rust-colored patterns in the island’s natural rock.
Together, the house and low-slung primary suite convey a sense of solidity and weightlessness. By recapturing interior headroom, enhancing passive ventilation, and creating transparency, the architects made the cottage more permeable to the amazing setting while increasing its durability in a daunting climate. “The clients really feel like it’s what they envisioned,” Andre says. “This is their oasis, and they wanted to feel like they’re outside. The client is always puttering in the landscape, building paths through the island, going for a swim. At night the house becomes a beacon for the island.”
Double Island Cottage
Georgian Bay, Ontario
Architect: Andre D’Elia, partner in charge; Jennifer Esposito, project architect; Carly Kandrack, Janean Brühn, design team, Superkül, Toronto, Ontario
Builder: Moon Island Construction, Mactier, Ontario
Interior designer: Superkül
Structural engineer: Kieffer Structural Engineering, Toronto
Millwork: Chervin Kitchen & Bath, Port Carling, Ontario
Project size: 3,042 square feet
Site size: 5 acres
Construction cost: Withheld
Photography: Studio Shai Gil
Key Products
Cladding: Concrete masonry blocks
Cooktop: Gaggenau
Countertops: Caesarstone
Dishwasher: Gaggenau
Faucets: Brizo, Rubinet
Flooring: Moncer Flooring
Hardware: Hinge Hardware, Casson
Interior wall cladding: White-washed knotty pine
Kitchen: Bulthaup
Lighting: Herman Miller, Flos, Astro, Lambert & Fils, Peter Bowles, Liteline, DELTALIGHT, Artemide
Ovens: Gaggenau
Refrigerator: Gaggenau, Bosch
Sinks: Bosch, Blanco
Skylights: VELUX
Tiles: Stone Tile
Toilets: TOTO
Tub: Native Trails
Washer/dryer: Bosch
Windows and window wall systems: Schüco | Bigfoot Door
Wine refrigerator: Liebherr