Dune House by Waechter Architecture

Located along the northern Oregon Coast, Dune House by Portland-based Waechter Architecture balances sensitivity to landscape and building traditions with a timeless, iconic form. The house is inspired by the surrounding dunes and seagrass, that stretch between the last line of houses and the open tidal areas of the beach. Its rugged, unadorned cedar shingle exterior and quiet white oak interior create a serene, meditative retreat that shows deep respect for its windswept setting.

Simple in plan and designed to blend seamlessly with the dunes, the home's weathering cedar shingles are one of the most prevalent building materials in the region. A modern take on the classic shingled beach cottage, the rough-textured exterior is paired with a restrained interior palette of oak flooring and panelling, with minimal trim, giving the building a calm, carved, and monolithic presence.

A streamlined floor plan centres around a skylit interior courtyard, with interiors shaped by light and coastal conditions. The multi-purpose space is framed by two private bedroom suites, and a kitchen and dining alcove. From the bedrooms and primary living spaces, framed views of the coastal dunescape create an ideal setting for rest and contemplation. Embracing simplicity through clean lines and sculptural form, Dune House is a retreat from everyday distractions — a space for reconnection with the elements and the simple rituals of living.

Styling by Karie Higgins Studio with Shop Wilma
Photography by Pablo Enriquez
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Pine Island Cottage by Bureau Tempo & Thom Fougere

Nestled on a secluded island in the heart of Georgian Bay, Ontario, Pine Island Cottage is a serene family getaway that blends seamlessly into its natural surroundings. With interiors designed by Bureau Tempo and Thom Fougere Studio, the cottage unfolds as a series of gathering spaces that cascade gently along the island's sloped stone formations.

The design is rooted in a simple but compelling idea, that the kind of friction we experience outdoors — a rough stone underfoot, some unexpected rain — is what draws us into the present moment. That same tactile quality runs through the interior, from the texture of the wood-grain walls to the grip of flamed stone underfoot in the shower, grounding you in the space and enriching every exchange with it. As Fougere explains, "When visiting the site early on with the family, we spent time walking alongside the mottled, stone-covered beach by the water. Translating that tactile experience into the interior in unexpected ways became a guiding goal — it often came down to finding the minimum touch with the maximum impact."

Guests arrive to a pebble-shaped oak door handle and are led into a low, gently lit, oak-lined entryway. From here, the space gradually opens as floors terrace downward, the ceiling height rises, and the material palette lightens, revealing the main living area below.

At the heart of the home, the kitchen is anchored by a fieldstone island that evokes the feeling of casual gatherings on rocky shores. Complete with a pantry, bar and breakfast nook, the custom cabinetry is crafted in white oak, walnut, and limestone, with every detail carefully considered down to the ceramics, cookware, cutlery, and linens. The pantry has been reimagined as a functional, market-style space with produce and food on full display, while custom trays allow for easy transport of ingredients, coffees, and cocktails to and from the adjacent pewter bar. For Thom Fougere, the kitchen island became a focal point of the entire design process: "It became not only an experiment with materiality, but also a highly functional element of the kitchen — a ritualised gathering point that emerged from many personal discoveries alongside the client and site-specific cues."

Beyond the kitchen, a custom timber dining table and bench overlook a sunken living room with a bespoke walnut sofa and integrated stair. The double-sided hearth, framed by the same fieldstone as the kitchen island, sits at the centre of the cottage's circulation, warming both the interior and the screened outdoor porch.

Lighting is deliberately restrained, kept low and warm, drawing out the richness of each material. As Adam Robinson of Bureau Tempo explains, "We did not want to disturb the serenity of the darkness on the island — how finishes would feel when very dimly lit was paramount in selecting materials." Throughout the cottage, custom-cast wall sconces and wrought-iron handrails crafted by a local blacksmith create a tactile rhythm that ties the spaces together.

The bedroom wings connect to the main living area via a glazed, elevated breezeway. A guest bedroom and children's room with bunk beds sit on one side, while a private office and primary bedroom with ensuite occupy the other. A shift in materials — from concrete to wood to locally sourced Eramosa stone — marks the transition through the cottage, with the stone floor flamed to create a weathered, timeworn appearance underfoot. Robinson notes that this direction was established early: "Conversations about embracing patina and using materials that would age well led to rich material selections and a few unexpected pairings."

The primary bedroom features expansive storage, oak-lined at one end and custom rug-fronted closets suspended on iron frames at the other, softening the room both visually and acoustically. Fieldstone carries through to this space, providing a backdrop to both the bed and vanity. In the ensuite, a custom double-basin stone sink, flamed stone shower floor, and ceramic tub create a warm and unhurried setting for daily rituals.

The result is a beautifully tranquil cottage that feels less designed than discovered — as though the island itself had a hand in every decision.

Photography by Alex Lesage

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Framing the Landscape: SONO by Atelier Carle

Set in the landscape of Wentworth-Nord, Quebec, SONO is a secondary residence by Montreal-based Atelier Carle, oriented toward northern light and framing a sweeping panorama across the site. Three long concrete walls, varying in height and scaled to the landscape, form the approach to the building — anchoring it in time and grounding it within the site. A narrow gap between the walls reveals the entrance. Beyond this threshold, the interior tells a different story. Here, a timber structure and flexible layout signal a home designed to adapt and evolve over a much longer horizon than most.

The brief was a unique one: the clients, two friends wishing to share the same secondary residence, without being obliged to "live together" in every sense. Atelier Carle responded with an architectural sequence that meanders — gradually revealing the whole of the home, room by room, while maintaining a quiet sense of visual privacy and acoustic separation. True to the spirit of the times, it's the kitchen that opens most completely to the landscape, becoming the natural gathering point — for the couple, for guests, and metaphorically, for the surrounding environment itself.

What's interesting about SONO is that its design isn't rooted in regional architectural style or identity. Instead, the practice has focused on something more phenomenological — the connection between how the body perceives landscape in real time, and how architecture can "frame" that experience as it shifts across the day. The spaces unfold in terraces that follow the natural slope of the site, each room offering a different vantage point, with light constantly changing the feel of the space. It's this sensitivity, rather than a fixed formula, that defines Atelier Carle's approach, resulting in an architectural language that responds to its surroundings rather than imposing on them.

Just as compelling as the design is the process behind it. SONO was built through close collaboration between the architects, builders, and trades involved — a relationship the firm sees as essential, and one that a traditional fixed-price contract model often struggles to support. For a project of this depth, decision-making couldn't be linear or architect-led alone; it required patience, trust, and enthusiasm from everyone involved, including the clients themselves.

That collaborative spirit extended to the materials too. Working closely with a local carpenter, the team sourced a significant quantity of hemlock from a site adjacent to the project — used throughout the exposed timber structure, and on the north façade for the columns, fascias, and cladding. It's a fitting material choice: locally sourced and ecologically considered, hemlock aligns naturally with the project's broader values. The house itself sits directly on existing bedrock, with no blasting or major excavation required — a final, quiet gesture toward leaving the site as undisturbed as possible.

Credits

Atelier Carle Team: Alain Carle, Isaniel Lévesque, Baptiste Balbrick, James Jabbour, Starr Wang, Sarah Mei Mousseau

General contractor: Metric Construction Inc.

Structural engineer: VCMa Engineering consultants

Geotechnical engineer: Ingénat Engineering consultants

Reclaimed wood: Taylor Lukian

Windows: Shalwin

Millwork: Xavier Collection

Photography by Félix Michaud

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Villa Österlen by Note Design Studio

Well known for product and interior design, Stockholm-based Note Design Studio has gradually expanded to include architecture as a natural extension of its multidisciplinary approach. Located on a sloping site in a village in southern Sweden, Villa Österlen is their second completed architectural project and marks another step in the studio's growing portfolio.

The house sits naturally within the landscape, surrounded by orchards and rolling hills, while offering a modern family both comfort and privacy. It is a project that reflects Note's commitment to architecture grounded in a strong sense of context. Co-founder and interior architect Johannes Karlström explains: "For nearly a decade, we've been moving steadily toward architecture as a larger part of our practice. The ambition has always been to shape complete environments and experiences. Over the years, our role in collaborative projects has grown organically, leading to fully commissioned architectural works such as Villa Österlen."

Working with architecture hasn't changed Note's approach to other disciplines — if anything, it's the other way around. The studio brings its experience in product and interior design into its architectural work, shaping how it thinks about space, proportion, and atmosphere rather than exterior form. "We tend to think more in terms of spatial qualities than exterior form," says Karlström. "Approaching architecture from a slightly different perspective has allowed us to remain curious, naïve, and exploratory throughout the process. There's a certain openness in working on early architectural projects that encourages experimentation and creative freedom."

Villa Österlen follows last year's mountain home in Ottsjö, though the two projects differ significantly both architecturally and in terms of location. Villa Ottsjö is a stand-alone house in the alpine landscape of the Årefjällen region, while the Österlen project is tightly interwoven with a historic village environment — its material choices and overall form strongly influenced by the area's cultural heritage and proximity to the local church.

"This second house is located a thousand kilometres south of our first, in a completely different climate and cultural setting," Karlström notes. "Our next residential project is already underway on the island of Gotland, in an old quarry and former military site. It's exciting to present a series of houses with such distinct identities."

The architecture bears many similarities to a traditional "skånelänga”, a long, narrow building typical of the region. This served as a natural starting point, used as a springboard rather than a blueprint. The house follows the stepped terrain, sitting lightly in the landscape and acting as a harmonising link between the differing orientations of surrounding buildings. Its plastered stone construction paired with a Rheinzink roof echoes the tones and materials of this historically protected area.

"The architecture is minimalistic, which places greater responsibility on the materials. The nearby church became an important reference. Both plaster and zinc age beautifully, and over time the façade will shift in tone while the metalwork develops a matte blue patina," says Jesper Mellgren, the project's architect.

The view over Hanöbukten is a key element of the house, shaping both its architecture and orientation on the site. The oversized skylight on the upper floor frames the landscape in a striking way, while the pivot doors — large, elegant, and beautifully detailed — form an important part of the overall composition.

As with the studio's first architectural project, establishing a clear design direction early proved essential. Much of the later stages focused on detailing, technical adaptations, and preserving the original architectural intent throughout.

The main materials defining the interior are warm Swedish pine combined with stone in the form of Norwegian slate and Bohuslän granite. Chosen for their durability and low environmental impact, significant time was spent developing a special finish for the wood: a soft, milky tone achieved through a mix of oil-based pigments and lye.

"The development of the special wood finish was one of the most demanding parts of the project, but also one of the most successful. The colour works beautifully with the changing daylight. Each room takes on its own character depending on how the sun moves through the house," says Mellgren.

The brief centred the spatial planning around generous social spaces capable of bringing a geographically scattered family together, while still allowing for privacy when needed. The result is a floor plan that balances open communal zones with more private rooms, organised around framed views and gentle transitions between interior and exterior.

Note custom-designed a number of details and furniture pieces for the house — among them a dining table and lamp created specifically for the space. These were designed to complement the Nordic materials of wood, granite, and slate, while giving the home a distinct personal character.

The ceiling is perhaps the most striking expression of the house's materiality and craftsmanship. It creates a solemn, almost sacred atmosphere, while remaining warm and intimate — a quality that carries through every room.

Photography by Erik Lefvander

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