A Modern Boathouse in a Canadian Landscape / Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Limited

Architects: Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Limited
Location: Parry Sound District, ON, Canada
Architect In Charge: Kevin Weiss, Maya Przybylski
Year: 2014
Photographs: Arnaud Marthouret

Contract Documentation: Kevin Weiss – Principal, Steve James (Larkin Architect Limited) / Kevin Weiss – Principal, Sophie Tremblay, Tings Chak (Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Limited)
Structural Engineering: David Bowick, Matt Bowick (Blackwell Engineering)

From the architect. Located on one of the many islands dotting The Archipelago in Georgian Bay, Ontario, this private boathouse and docking facility designed by Kevin Weiss of Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Limited exemplifies a quiet and precise modernism. Through careful form-making and the use of rustic materials, the project responds gently both to the natural and cultural context of the area, where historically built-form yields to the power of the landscape with its exposed and glacially carved granite and wind swept jack pines.

Sitting on a structure of robust timber and rock cribs, the large cedar dock, and its amenities, is the primary location of the family’s daytime leisure activities – both active and reposed. The building elements consists of the cedar dock, floating docks and bridges, a storage building for kayaks, canoes and windsurfing equipment, a food servery, linear shade canopies, and a covered seating pavilion.

The storage building is clad with black stained resawn cedar, while the steel pavilion structure is covered with cedar and terne coated copper. The two are connected with a light, steel, and canvas linear shade canopy structure. On approach, due to its thinness, lightness and horizontality, the finely crafted ensemble almost disappears as it recedes into the landscape. In the evening, gentle up-lighting of the pavilion provides a warm beacon for late arriving guests.

As the dock extends out far into a small bay, it sits under the cover of the pavilion and blends into the surrounding panorama of smooth granite, still water, and commanding jack pines. The landscape remains the dominant experience.