Hasta La Ideas

Canadian studio Bourgeois Lechasseur Architects has stacked two wood-and-glass volumes at opposing angles, resulting in a home designed to embrace its picturesque surroundings (+ slideshow).

The Altaïr House is located in Cap-à-l’Aigle, a resort village situated along the Saint-Lawrence River in Quebec’s Charlevoix region. Its name refers to the brightest star in the Aquila constellation, called The Flying Eagle.

The house comprises two long volumes stacked on top of each other in a V-shaped formation. The upper level slightly cantilevers over the sloped site and gestures toward the river.

The “voluntary misalignment” of the volumes is intended to capitalise on the home’s beautiful and serene setting.

“While discrete from the street and closed to the north, it unfolds toward the river, as though to take flight,” said Bourgeois Lechasseur Architects, which is based in Quebec.

Clad in wood, the facades are protected by roof eaves sheathed in Western cedar. Vast expanses of glass frame views of the river and forest, as well as the nearby city of Malbaie.

“Close up, the house remains mysterious, as it is camouflaged by the trees,” the studio said.

The main entrance is located on the ground level. One wing contains three bedrooms, while the other features a living room that connects to an outdoor patio and concrete swimming pool.

A steel and wood staircase leads to the second floor, where the design team placed an open-plan kitchen, dining room and living room, along with the master suite.

The upper storey features a large window wall that overlooks the pool and surrounding terrain.

“The living areas succeed one another, and the completely open space provides a breathtaking view of the horizon,” the firm said.

An expansive wooden terrace with glass balustrades was built on the roof of the lower volume. An exterior stair leads to the backyard below.

Inside, the firm covered ceilings in the same cedar used for the roof overhangs, “emphasising the continuation effect from the inside out”.

The stripped-down interior features concrete flooring and wooden cabinetry and doors.

Other projects by Bourgeois Lechasseur Architects include a gabled family home in rural Quebec with facades clad in cedar tiles.

Photoography is by Adrien Williams.

Project credits:

Architects: Bourgeois / Lechasseur Architects
General Contractor: Construction des Grands-Jardins

The post Bourgeois Lechasseur’s V-shaped Altaïr House overlooks a Quebec forest appeared first on Dezeen.

On the heels of a similar quarterly-print strategy completed in 2015 by Time Out Chicago, Time Out Los Angeles is adding some similar hard copy to the web and smartphone mix. The first quarterly issue will arrive Oct. 5 with a total circulation of 75,000.

From today’s announcement:

Free copies of the magazine will be available at local venues such as restaurants, bars, retailers, hotels and cultural institutions across the city. Street teams will also hand out copies directly to readers in Santa Monica and downtown.

“Launching a free magazine in L.A. is an important strategic step for us and our growing national footprint,” said Justin Etheridge, president of Time Out North America. “With our unique take on the free magazine model and an exciting local events program, our mission is to re-create in L.A. the incredible halo effect on our digital metrics and ad revenues that we have seen in New York and Chicago.”

Time Out New York is published in print weekly. Articles in this fall’s debut L.A. issue (pictured) include a feature about five female brewers impacting the local craft beer scene.

Founded last year in White Plains, NY, Britt Dignan’s Bygone Candle Co. produces candles that boast lush fragrances made to remind users of seasons past. Dignan decided to start the business after failing to find candles that were seasonally appropriate……

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Reuters has named Tiffany Wu managing editor for news in the Americas. Wu most recently served as Americas deputy regional editor and desk head.

“Based in New York, Tiffany will be responsible for helping to steer our coverage strategy and lead our daily news editing and our production teams, including our multimedia efforts,” wrote Reuters’ regional editor the Americas, Kevin Krolicki, in a memo. “As the senior news editor in our largest U.S. newsroom, Tiffany will also be on hand to run any story that requires us to mobilize quickly across teams in New York and the region.”

Wu has been with Reuters since 1998.

I finished a bed recently for my guest room. I’m really happy with the build but now more than ever I really hate the flanking Lingerie chests that my wife and I bought decades ago. Truthfully I didn’t much care for them when we bought them but this was before I became a woodworker and didn’t really know anything about furniture anyway. I don’t even remember where we got them but its a safe bet it was some place like Wal-Mart. They are boring and cheap with plastic laminate MDF and knockdown hardware. We replaced the faux wooden knobs years ago with metal ones to try and dress it up. What’s that expression about dressing up a turd?

Notice the flanking lingerie chests…and how I tried to crop them out of the shot.

The thing is from a functional perspective they do a great job. My wife loves the multiple drawers and keeps a lot of stuff in there. Its to the point where whenever I talk about getting rid of them she immediately gets protective because of how useful the storage space is. The drawers don’t pull out cleanly anymore because the case has racked over the years but that doesn’t seem to matter to her.

So with the new bed in place, I cautiously broached the subject about replacing them.

“Fine, but I want them to look exactly the same and have the same storage capacity.”

I can’t even begin to describe what a triumph this admission is after more than 15 years of suggesting we get rid of these atrocities to quality craftsmanship. Moreover now I’m faced with an exciting challenge of designing a chest that doesn’t change in function at all and remains the same from an overall appearance.

Today it hit me. I was walking across the lumber yard and watching a forklift unload a pack from a shipping container. As the lift lowered the lumber to the 3×3 bolsters we use to raise lumber off the ground, I saw it. This particular bolster for some unknown reason had a notch cut out of the end. Imagine a big rabbet on the end of it. When the lumber pack was set on top of it, it appeared to be floating over the bolster.

When I went back to photograph the notched bolster it was gone…use your imagination

This floating cabinet idea is far from a new one and you will see if everywhere once you start looking. But it was that tiny detail that got me thinking not about changing the Lingerie chest itself but instead changing the base.

Out comes my tablet and stylus and I’m sketching away. A french foot with scalloped cross pieces creates an elegant foot and floats the case above it. Just using quality materials and construction will dress up the case above it and ensure that I maintain the overall look and function that is so dear to my wife.

The Woodworker’s Curse

Now to the details, where I screw up the design and flabbergast my wife because like all woodworkers I have to over complicate things and add details that add nothing to the design. I admit that the blocky case bothers me. I also admit that my overwhelming prejudice against the existing chest has given me a serious bias. So I feel like I need to mess with the design there. However I keep hearing my wife’s voice telling me not to mess with it. So I start sketching ideas where I do a complementary species drawer front or a figured drawer front. Then I start looking at stringing on the drawer fronts instead. Both of these significantly change the look and feel of the piece and I realize that messing with the case itself actually does more harm than good to the simplicity of the design.

Anything I add to it makes it feel showy and pretentious. So I do what everyone does when they hit a creative wall…go to lunch. As I sit eating a sandwich and staring at a wooden fence it hits me. A typical wooden fence is boring, vertical planks stacked next to each other. What makes it interesting is the shape of the tops of each plank. Some just come to a point, while others add cut outs and play on negative space. But everything below that is just straight lines.

My case is the same situation. I need to keep the straight, blocky lines of the case and avoid changing any of that. Make it well and it will be sufficient. But if I add a simple contracting inlay along the edge of the top, it changes everything. I blame Garret Hack for this as I’m definitely channeling his designs here with a Ebony and Holly straight line inlay.

Then because I can’t leave well enough alone, I sketch in the same inlay at the bottom of the case right above the floating base to punctuate the transition as well as highlight the floating effect. Finally I sketch in some blocky, Ebony drawer pulls. That part will evolve later, but I think the Ebony (or something dark) will tie together the inlays.

And I’m done. I’ll build the whole thing in Cherry to match the Cherry of the bed in the room already and with just an alteration of the base and a tiny bit of inlay at the top and bottom of the form, I’m pretty happy with the idea. Whats amazing is just how little I had to change the design from the form that I hate so much to be truly excited about the new piece.

Now I just need to get the wife’s approval on the design.