Residential Cottage Design
The northern Ontario district of Muskoka is well known for its dramatic natural setting of lakes and trees amidst spectacular rock out-crops of the Canadian Shield. The demand for Muskoka properties has opened up shorelines that at one time were unreachable by roads or services. This Lake Joseph cottage is one of those impossible sites. The challenge was to find a way to integrate a traditional form of architecture into an unconventional site that had been seriously degraded through blasting and scouring of its cliffside site. The primary objective of the design was to solve access and grade challenges for the new owners and to re-establish a soil horizon throughout the disturbed portion of the property that would allow the natural process of regeneration to occur.
