Montreal studio La Shed is well known for its expertise in single-family homes. Laureate of numerous prizes and professional awards, both in Canada and internationally, this practice has been reinventing the rules of domesticity for over 10 years – thanks to its mastery of volumes, its knowledge of Quebec’s built heritage and its unrivalled attention to detail. In one of Montreal’s oldest neighbourhoods, ‘Les Interstices’ stands out for its quasi-archaeological approach to an abandoned and condemned house, transformed into a warm and luminous living space.

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From woodland cabins to townhouses, the architects at La Shed have studied a wide range of typologies in order to design living spaces tailored to the needs of their clients. In the south of the island of Montreal, on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, the Pointe-Saint-Charles neighbourhood, traditionally a working-class area, has been the focus since the mid-2000s of large-scale urban and property development projects aimed at revitalising and redeveloping neglected blocks and vacant plots of land. Situated in a small, quiet, tree-lined street, it is a narrow, condemned and dilapidated building that the clients present to the architects: ‘When we first visited this barricaded house, which had been abandoned for several years, many would have considered it a lost cause requiring complete demolition. The poor upkeep of the premises, the completely disfigured front facade, the lack of any intrinsic qualities that could be observed, all pointed to this project as a colossal challenge.’

Project strategy

Following a series of hypotheses to determine the nature and typology of the original envelope, the architects uncovered a brick façade behind the cladding and weatherboarding that had encased the house, and determined that the latter, like its neighbours, once featured a cornice roof. On the basis of this typology, the team placed the preservation of the original façade at the heart of its intervention. In order to ensure that the contemporary language of the extension requested by the clients did not detract from the renovation of the street façade, La Shed’s strategy was to extend the building on its courtyard façade, in keeping with the original plan, which featured, in the treatment of its four façades, ‘several setbacks and recesses, as well as an interior courtyard’. The rear courtyard was thus partially annexed to form a semi-enclosed patio, embraced on its west side by a building extending towards the garden at the end of the plot. On the street side, a discreet modern inclusion has been placed in an unbuilt area flanking the plot, now adjoining the original façade, enhanced by its restoration.

Interstices, intervals, insertions

An intermediate space is created between the street and the family areas, consisting of the entrance area and useful kitchen storage areas. The street entrance is preceded by a small garden, which creates a gap between the house and its neighbour. Slightly set back from the façade, the extension takes shape by occupying the space between the two houses; in this narrow strip rise the vertical passages, in particular a staircase with no risers, separated from the kitchen by a glazed partition, which leads natural light throughout the elevation of the extension and into the depth of the renovated house.

‘The interface between this gap and the rest of the house is clearly expressed in all the spaces: on the ground floor, the floor finish expresses this and contributes to the compositional qualities of the dining room. On the first floor, the threshold is materialised by a wall that is in fact that of the original construction, clearly marking the fact that you have to cross it to access the more intimate spaces’, explain the architects.

Volumes and space

On the top floor, the architects have raised the ceiling height slightly, without affecting the building’s overall height. The joists marking the original ceiling have been preserved and made visible, allowing a subtle reference to the volume of the original house. In addition to the project’s many lighting features, skylights have been added to the renovated roof.

The architects made use of the double heights on the upper level, which accommodates the night spaces, to create views towards the day spaces and thus increase the surface area of the house. ‘The rooms are staggered in relation to each other, creating alcoves and a variety of openings while allowing the outside spaces to flow into the heart of the living areas. This strategy is very effective in physically separating the rooms, while minimising circulation to the benefit of usable surface areas.’

At the back of the plot, the extension adds two rooms to the house: a living room on the garden level and an office on the mezzanine. This new construction is located at the junction between the new patio and the rear garden, which is reached from the west via a passageway covered by a pergola – a new “gap”. ‘The threshold of this rear entrance is marked by a metal grating suspended above a coping, which allows for the addition of an extra bedroom in the basement.’

By linking two periods of this Montreal neighbourhood, the ‘Les Interstices’ house is part of a repertoire that the architects at La Shed are familiar with: that of conviviality and architectural quality in dense or complex urban environments.

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Maison « Les Interstices », Montréal, Québec, Canada

Programme : Extension and complete renovation of a single-family home
Client : Private
Architects : La Shed
Surface area : 157 sqm (1 690 sqft)
Completion : 2022
Photographs : Maxime Brouillet