Project Details
- Project Name
- Kiss-Kiss House
- Location
- Ontario
- Architect
- Lazor Office
- Builder
- Steenhoff Building Services
- Project Types
- Custom Home
- Size
- 1,830 sq. feet
- Year Completed
- 2013
- Project Status
- Built
2017 Builder's Choice & Custom Home Design Awards
Modular/Prefab Home: Merit
Project planners for the 1,830-square-foot Kiss-Kiss House used two prefabricated modules to ease its construction on a remote shelf of bedrock overlooking Rainy Lake in Ontario, Canada. Both volumes are clad in cedar, with predominantly solid walls facing the entry and floor-to-ceiling glazing facing the lake. The inflection between the masses creates a “kiss point” in the overtly bisected plan where an irregularly shaped window surrounds the entry door. The solid mass of the detached garage, coupled with a privacy wall that defines a vegetable garden, create a series of private decked exterior spaces.
The interior experience of the home is oriented toward the lake, with views through the expansive glazing. The designers from Minneapolis-based Lazor Office located the three bedrooms at the ends of the two wings for privacy, with living and dining spaces spanning both volumes in the center. A central outside deck is formed at the exterior of the V-shaped space between the two primary masses. Details intentionally float free of the enclosing boxes: Kitchen cabinets sit inboard from the glass wall; a thin slab of soapstone serves as a dining island; and polished teak forms the counter, sink, and tub in the master bathroom.
Building the home as a pair of prefabricated modules ensured that a high degree of finish and detail could be accomplished in the wilderness locale. Both units are mounted on steel posts above exposed bedrock, mitigating the difficulty of building on the site while minimizing the environmental impact. — E.K.
“Given the site’s constraints, the positioning of the two simple volumes was quite strategic. It’s a clean design and smart solution.” - Juror Christiana Moss
Click here for all of the 2017 Builder's Choice/Custom Home Design Award winners.
Project Description
From the architects. Perched above the bedrock at the shore of a remote Canadian lake, the cedar-clad Kennedy House takes formal cues from driftwood. The three-bedroom house, dock house, garage, and walled vegetable garden are linked by a series of wood walkways and decks. At the “kiss line” between two prefabricated modules, the lineal form of the house snaps like a branch held together only by bark. The open break forms a V-shaped outdoor room facing the water. The walls frame a courtyard like a clearing in the forested area along the shore. While the garage and garden doors blend into the wood, the main entry interrupts it with an irregularly shaped sheet of glass, as though the surface has begun to tear at the kiss line. Floor-to-ceiling, full-length glass on the lakeside façades of both modules allows each to present a distinct, expansive view of the lake and its islands. Being inside the house feels like floating over the water. The organization and details of the interior living space reinforce the sense of openness established by the glass. The kitchen counter is shifted slightly back from the glass, a thin slab of back-cut soapstone forms a dining island, and the fireplace is transparent on three sides. Polished teak surfaces continue from the walls and ceiling of the master bathroom to the counter, sink, and tub. Private living spaces occupy the far ends of the modules, where the end walls angle toward the tree canopy.
