Ridge House

Simcic + Uhrich Architects, Canada

This family weekend retreat is located on South Pender Island, British Columbia. The building is approximately 230 square meters and contains a simple program — an open social space for cooking, dining, and living, as well as more contained spaces for the study, main bedroom suite, and guest accommodations.

Although well connected by view, the one-hectare site is high above and inland from the surrounding ocean. It is entirely made up of an east-west trending ridge and attendant slopes. The building occupies the top of the ridge, providing a strong relationship to the northern and southern orientations, which are characterized by openness and distance. The site’s east and west sides remain treed and protected. These conditions, together with steeply falling grades to the north and south, give the site and the project a fulcrum.

To respond to the highly exposed site conditions, the building form developed through a series of roof studies. The result is a form that orients and opens up to the north and south for light while closing to the east and west for solar shading and privacy. The intermittent vertical drops in the roof provide structure and shading from the summer afternoon and evening sun angles.  

Inside the house, these same forms provide the dynamic acoustic qualities in the main space required by the clients for their flute and piano rehearsals and performances. In the absence of trees to the south, the roof extends a large overhang to shade and protect against rain, wind, and summer sun. It also captures reflected light from the ocean while providing protected outdoor social spaces. By contrast, the shorter overhang on the north side exposes the sky vault with daylight reflecting off roof water collected on the north terrace.

Originally appeared in Modus News 4