Why naturehumaine ? People often ask what the name of our firm (human nature in English) stands for. We don’t have a straightforward answer but intuitively, we know why. The name conveys the values we want our architecture to reflect. In essence, we believe architecture is a powerful immersive medium that has the capacity to influence our mental state and regulate our interactions with the world. It forms the framework that carefully balances the ecosystems that operate at the scale of the city, the house, and the human being.
opportunity to be more innovative and imaginative. The juxtaposition of our contemporary designs with the more ordinary existing tissue creates an architectural contrast that enhances the city fabric while revitalizing our experiences through the city.
Not just pretty pictures in a magazine. Real spaces for real people with real budgets.
While contemporary architecture is often thought of as being expensive, the majority of our clients come to us with limited budgets and grand aspirations. In an age where much of contemporary architecture is dominated more and more by technology driven fabrication, we attempt to innovate while still using low-tech, standard construction methods. Minimizing the use of steel and concrete in our designs while pushing the limits of wood frame construction helps keep our carbon footprint down. We challenge ourselves daily to innovate our designs and create beautiful comfortable spaces that fit within our clients needs and budgets.
Much of our work is in Montreal’s dense urban fabric. While these are often row-house-sites that are sandwiched between 2 other buildings, their fronts and backs give onto 2 very different conditions. Their street front fraçades are rigidly regulated by the cities bylaws and do not leave much room for innovation while the back façades give onto lane ways where the city’s regulations are less strict and we have the
Every project has a unique potential embedded within its particular context. We attempt to uncover that potential and maximize it. We decipher the desires and needs of the clients, decode building regulations, compute budgets and areas, scrutinize over sunlight, views, and movement. Our delicate understanding of effective living spaces makes us strive for sensitive and balanced designs.
Contemporary infill
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8TH AVENUE RESIDENCE This intervention transformed a residential two storey duplex in Rosemont into a single dwelling unit by completely reorganizing the interior and constructing a 430 sqft extension in the rear. The extension includes a master bedroom on the second floor and a family room that gives onto an intimate garden at ground level. Standing proud on a typical Montreal laneway, the extension acts as a beacon of novelty and dynamism. While little work was done to the front facade, the extension was designed in contrast, with bright colors, an angled form, and generous glazing. Work on the interior centered on exposing and highlighting the beauty of existing wooden structural walls and beams and supporting them with a more subtle pallet of materials. Natural daylight is brought into the core with a large skylight and glass floor placed at the center of the house.
Intervetion - Interior reorganization + extension Location - Montreal, Canada Floor Area - 1630 ft2 Completion Date - 2013 Photo Credit - Adrien Williams
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CHAMBORD RESIDENCE The client wanted to convert her 1920s duplex into a single family home by joining her former rental unit upstairs with her ground floor unit. This allowed for more spacious living areas on the ground floor as well as 3 bedrooms and an office space upstairs. While the grey-stone front facade only required minor restorations, the back of the house was transformed completely. An emphasis on transparency creates constant visual and physical connections with the backyard. A cedar clad volume, containing the master bedroom, punches through the glass exterior wall and cantelivers over the backyard, sheltering the patio below. The wood cladding continues through to the inside, blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior.
Intervetion - Interior reorganization + extension Location - Montreal, Canada Floor Area - 1800 ft2 Completion Date - 2013 Photo Credit - Adrien Williams
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DULWICH RESIDENCE The clients had outgrown their 1920’s house on a large lot on Montreal’s south shore. They wanted a contemporary extension that would harmonize with their existing house and highlight and expose the structural brick. The existing house and the extension were separated by a glazed volume where the vertical circulation of the house is located. The existing house was reorganized to better suit the needs of the clients, where the entry and living room make up the ground floor and the children’s quarters on the second floor. Three double height spaces link the communal areas of the ground floor with the more private spaces of the second floor while maintaining a warm atmosphere in the house. The extension is organized into 2 intertwining volumes. A brick volume makes up the base and becomes the support for a steel clad volume that projects out into the backyard. The ‘sleeping basket’ is found at this projection where a large window frames the foliage. This becomes a space to relax and gaze out towards the garden as well as an area for the children to play while maintaining contact with the kitchen and dining spaces below.
Intervetion - Interior reorganization + extension Location - Montreal, Canada Floor Area - 2845 ft2 Completion Date - 2014 Photo Credit - Adrien Williams
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STEEL BOX
OFFICE
SLEEPING BASKET
EXISTING HOUSE
KITCHEN
DECK
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STACKED HOUSE This project was done in collaboration with the client who wished to build his own home. The site is located in a back alley of MontrÊal’s Plateau neighbourhood and the design reflects the patchwork of extensions and renovations typically found in Plateau alleyways. The constraints of the site called for a house that was built upwards versus outwards. Four boxes clad in different materials are stacked one on top of the other. A void carved out of the center of the house, provides daylight, ventilation, and private outdoor space.
Intervetion - New construction Location - Montreal, Canada Floor Area - 2518 ft2 Completion Date - 2013 Photo Credit - Adrien Williams
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LA COULEUVRE The clients had to find a way to expand their ground-floor unit with the arrival of twin babies. They wanted an adaptable design that would be fun and playful for their 3 young children. In order to keep their upstairs tenants, they had to expand outwards rather then upwards. The solution was to group all 4 bedrooms into a 1350 sqft rear annex. Nicknamed “la couleuvre” (the garden snake), the extension starts on the ground floor of the existing building and twists its way through the rear courtyard, mounting a brick volume clad with bricks salvaged from the demolished garage. The parents’ quarters are located in the ground floor brick volume, while the kid’s bedrooms are pushed up into the twisting volume upstairs. A bright orange handrail leads you up into the kids’ zone. An open concept bathroom that facilitates family bath time also acts as the circulation to the 3 bedrooms with built in bunk beds and furniture in a similar playful language.
Intervetion - Interior re-organisation and extension Location - Montreal, Canada Floor Area - 2350 ft2 Completion Date - 2012 Photo Credit - Adrien Williams
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LAJEUNESSE RESIDENCE We were hired by a young couple to do a complete renovation of a house built by the clients grandfather, now housing its third generation of the same family. They wanted to combine the two existing apartments into a single family house on two levels. Their request was that we created something modern and bright. Due to the noisy street at the front of the house, the main living spaces were placed at the back facing north creating the challenge of bringing direct sunlight into these spaces. A double height light-well topped with a skylight, aids in bringing light to the centre of the house. On the ground floor, a wall of translucent sliding panels protects the living spaces from unwanted gazes from the street as well as acting as a vestibule in winter. A plywood handrail wraps around the stair and folds at the base becoming a long bench for the dining table. Two intersecting steel bars are suspended over the dining table acting as both a sculptural element and the direct and indirect lighting for the dining area. A simple pallet unifies the custom furniture around the house; folded steel plates, white wooden shelves, and russian plywood. A play of angled white steel tubes supports the dining table, the kitchen island, and a glass handrail. The final result is humble and cosy, with each object falling naturally into place.
Intervetion - Interior reorganization Location - Montreal, Canada Floor Area - 2500 ft2 Completion Date - 2013 Photo Credit - Adrien Williams
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BERRI RESIDENCE A couple with a passion for contemporary architecture wanted an extension to their 1940s duplex in MontrĂŠal. Their main request was to have the dining room at the heart of the house where family discussions would take place. The existing house had an un-insulated, poorly built extension that used the maximum allowable footprint on the site. The solution was to demolish the previous extension and rebuild in its footprint. The approach was to maximize on its southern exposure and push the windows to their dimensional limit. The result is a pine-clad volume that has a certain lightness and transparency to it. A cantilevered steel box intersects the wood volume on the second floor and is punctured with a large corner-less window. The strategic placement of the dining room at the rear of the house enables the blurring of interior and exterior spaces as it leads both visually and physically onto the backyard.
Intervetion - Interior re-organisation and extension Location - Montreal, Canada Floor Area - 2900 ft2 Completion Date - 2012 Photo Credit - Adrien Williams
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CONNAUGHT RESIDENCE The changing needs of a growing family triggered the complete reconfiguration and extension of their existing 1950 concrete house. They wanted a contemporary extension that would harmonize with the modern spirit of the original house. The extension fills the void created by the split level of the existing house and is capped on either side with generous glazing. The living areas of the ground floor are distributed around a central core that has become the new focal point of the house. The new master bedroom found on the the second floor is secluded from the children’s bedrooms and accessed by a glass catwalk spanning the entrance of the home.
Intervetion - Interior re-organisation and extension Location - MontrĂŠal, Canada Floor Area - 3100 ft2 Completion Date - 2013 Photo Credit - Adrien Williams
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ALEXANDRA RESIDENCE The client’s priority was to maximize the natural light in their new live/work house in Montreal’s Mile-Ex district. This was made challenging by the east-west orientation of the infill lot. However, our design fills even the core of the house with light through the implementation of a 2 storey light-well which runs the length of the southern side of the house. Additional light is reflected into this light-well by the client’s office space, a white volume that sits atop the northern edge light-well. Spaces on the second storey also benefit from the light well’s luminosity; the walls adjacent to it are fully glazed and a floor to ceiling piece of frosted glass brings a very soft light into the bathroom. The expressive back facade of the house is defined by the angular geometry of the floating steel box. The front facade, however, is composed primarily of bricks to conform with the heritage character of the neighbourhood. Two disjuncted apertures break up the brick façade and are lined in aluminum. As only one side of the brick was glazed, a random mix of forward and backward facing bricks were laid to create a more dynamic façade.
Intervetion - New construction Location - Montreal, Canada Floor Area - 3300 ft2 Completion Date - 2013 Photo Credit - Adrien Williams
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