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In Wentworth-North, Quebec, Atelier Carle designs a secondary home for two friends who wanted to share the same place without surrendering all privacy to the weekend.
The brief for SONO Residence starts with a social arrangement as much as a site. Two friends wanted a house in the mountains of Quebec: a place to gather, host, cook, look out at the forest, and still have enough distance from each other when the day called for it. Atelier Carle answered with a house that moves in turns rather than one straight sweep. Rooms are placed along a broken path, so the whole interior is never given away at once. Some spaces meet; others retreat. That sounds like a small thing until you imagine sharing a second home with someone you love, but do not want to hear making coffee at every hour.
The site is handled with equal practicality. Along the southern, uphill edge, three board-formed concrete walls take on snow, water, and the pressure of the slope. The entrance is set between them, reached from a gravel path that feels more like a break in the terrain than a front door. On the northern side, the house opens to the forest with hemlock structure, hemlock cladding, and large windows. The wood was sourced from a nearby site and developed with local carpentry and engineering, giving the glazed side of the house a warmer, more domestic character than the concrete approach.
Hemlock beams cross the ceiling. Concrete floors take the wear of boots, snow, and weekend traffic. The green kitchen belongs near the north-facing glass, where the forest is part of the daily view. Around it, the plan gives shared rooms the best outlook, while bedrooms and quieter areas have more distance from one another. For two friends using the same house, that distance is practical. It allows dinner, guests, work, reading, and a morning without conversation to happen under the same roof.
