Steep Sites, Smart Design: Build Without Losing Your View (Or Your Mind)

Building your dream cottage on a steep lakefront lot might seem impossible—but it’s not. In this episode of Build the Unbuildable, architect James Pitropov and co-host John Tyreman unpack the art and science of designing for topography. From strategic surveying and ICF foundations to retaining walls, terraces, and multi-level layouts, James explains how thoughtful design can transform vertical challenges into breathtaking opportunities.

You’ll also learn why early collaboration—with surveyors, engineers, and municipalities—can make or break a steep-site project, and how regulatory hurdles like Committee of Adjustment approvals can be navigated with creativity and confidence.

Whether you’re dreaming of a lakefront retreat or planning a major rebuild, this episode will help you see steep sites not as obstacles—but as the foundation for something extraordinary.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Welcome
01:09 Kawartha Cottage
06:30 Regulatory Committees
09:55 Original Structure
13:00 Elevation Map
19:21 Cottage Country
25:45 The build
30:45 Cutting Into The Terrain
36:23 How To Break Down A Site
46:16 Working Within A Short Construction Season
53:11 Conclusion
56:03 Free PDF Guide

Connect with James on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-pitropov-783029156/
Learn more: https://lakesidearchitecture.ca/

Learn more at https://lakesidearchitecture.ca/

Transcript

James 0:00

it approaches art and poetry more than construction. At some point. I like to keep it real and get it built, but there should be a big vision like a vision of beauty, of being really functional and useful and being strong and sturdy.

0:15

You are listening to Build the Unbuildable, a podcast about designing dream cottages on some of the most challenging sites in Ontario's cottage country.

John 0:24

All right. Welcome to Build the Unbuildable, the podcast about building high-end homes in impossible places. My name's John Tieman, and as always, I'm joined by James Pitp, principal architect at Lakeside Architecture. James, how you doing?

James 0:37

I'm doing pretty well today, John, how about yourself?

John 0:39

I'm doing well. I'm doing well.

James 0:41

That's great.

John 0:42

I'm excited about our topic because, um, this is one that I'm curious about and building on steep, nearly completely inaccessible sites. there's a lot that goes into that, and I'm sure that we're going to unpack it and, um, you know, we'll talk about site conditions, regulatory constraints, and then creative design that goes along with the form of the land. So, um, yeah, I'm excited to dig into this one.

James 1:07

It is gonna be a good one. It's gonna be another deep dive, John.

John 1:09

All right. So, uh, James, let's start with, um, an award-winning lakeside cottage that you designed in the Kawartha region in Northern Ontario. Um, what was it about this location that made it so challenging?

James 1:28

Yeah. That's a good, uh, starting, uh, question there John. You know, um, as an architect, on the, uh, chief architect at, uh, Lakeside Architecture Inc. we're focused on, on Lakeside architecture, interesting sites, and we are always looking for opportunities that make particular sites, um, interesting. Open up the possibility to explore different types of forms, create a better dialogue with the owner, more interesting conversation regarding design. Possibilities. So when we came across this, um, this client and their property, we knew we had a, challenge to explore and to address. So this is in the, uh, the coauthor region, um, in southern Ontario. It's on the edge of the Canadian Shield. So it's a pretty rugged topography, a lot of, uh, surface bedrock. The interesting thing about it though is that the site, uh, characteristics have the, bedrock of the more northern regions, the granite, bedrock, and limestone, mixed in, on the same site sometimes, and you can notice this when you're driving up a highway, uh, of 5 0 3 and 5 0 7 in, in Ontario, you get to a point where you're driving through the highway, along the highway, Rock outcroppings. And, first you're looking at limestone, and then you're going a little bit further north, and then you're onto granite, which is more characteristic of, of the Canadian shield. And then a few kilometers down, you are into a mixture of both. So it's a very rich environment. It creates a very craggy, uh, craggy, uh, a lake shorelines and a sort of convoluted topography, basically hilly, steep sites. And sometimes you're finding that you're building right up against the lake. The thing about, this lake here is that there were cottages that were built, quite a while back, uh, probably about 80, 80 years ago at the time. And they were built, they're all built very close to the shore. This particular cottage, the, the original cottage you see. Was built within 20 feet of the shoreline and, uh, very secluded. It had, um, some, there's some other outbuildings and it was part of a compound, actually. And the thing that I found interesting about it to answer, uh, to answer your question, was rather than a deep, sort of a deep, narrow lot going in, this was stretched out very thinly a long, uh, low lying shoreline. And I knew there would be constraints with the topography, with the, um, municipal bylaws as well as with conservation authorities. There are new regulations regarding distances from the lake, lakefront location of tanks. Well, so there's a real, uh, puzzle in the making there.

John 4:36

Yeah, I can totally see how that would be. We talked on a previous episode about, um, do we renovate, do we build a new, and it seems like this, this particular build was a little bit of a, a renovation building on top of that footprint. Do I have that right?

James 4:53

Well, uh, here's, here's, how things developed. At the beginning of the project. There was that classic discussion of whether we rent or we, we build new. And, it was an interesting structure because it had some length to it, which was a function of maximizing views along the lake and, and, so on at the time. however, with the, the topography of the site, uh, and the, the harsh winners that we have in cottage country in Ontario, over the years, there's been a lot of settling. There's cracking. Windows no longer open and closed properly, they get jammed when your structure is settling differentially everywhere. So it was pretty clear at the time that it would be, um, it would be a tear down and, and build new. Now the interesting thing is that, the owner was really clear that they didn't want to lose that proximity to the lake. So one of the first things I caution Cottagers is to not knock down any structure, before we get a surveyor onto the site. Locate the building, the footprint, elevations off the water, proximity to the water, proximity to wells, property lines and septic and so forth, and note the condition of all of those and prepare an actual study of existing conditions. This became critical because we ended up having to get, uh, municipal planning approval as we went, uh, through a what is known as a committee of adjustment. and ultimately a change to the, the, an application under the, Planning Act to get approval on this project here.

John 6:30

Interesting. And so what was your experience like? Navigating that because when we talked on that other episode, and if folks that are watching this or listening want to go back and really do a deep dive on renovate versus building anew, definitely go check out that episode. but just, quickly, James, what was your process like, kind of going through that with that regulatory committee?

James 6:52

Yeah. Yeah. So, John, uh, it, it was clear to me that we had to, defend the client's ability to build a proximity to the lake. So what that meant is we were going to go in through, some clauses in the bylaws that would permit building over the existing footprint. Now it varies from municipality to municipality. overall, the intent under the, the, the Planning Act is to preserve the lake side environment, meaning they don't want to see a lot of more development on the lakes aesthetically from the water. Is, is one of, one of the concerns. Now, the way that different municipalities enact that, uh, it varies. And in times, well, with this municipality, uh, their solution, like other municipalities was to regulate the, the impact on the lake by setting up a setback from the water, pushing the, the, the building back from the water. Now, the way the rules work is you need to have part of your building over the existing footprint. And, uh, in this municipality, part of the solution was pushing backwards, but there's a formula that they use so that as you push further back, you can go wider with the building. And there's this interesting play about. You have to have one, almost have one leg still in the, on the original location of the building, and you can stretch back, but your width and your height will be regulated by particular formulas. And this is true in, uh, in the kawarthas in, uh, the North Corus Township in, um, the Muskoka Lakes, um, Gravenhurst Brace Bridge. They all have these formulas that they work with. It's challenging and it's very intimidating for a lot of homeowners. Um, but that is the first step is to figure out what, what the rules are, and then to know your intent. I knew we had a battle that we'd have to go through, um, with, uh, special approvals for, for this layout.

John 8:48

Very cool. Well, it sounds like it's, uh, you know, quite the, uh, the red tape that you gotta navigate there, so, um.

James 8:55

the, the constraints, John, uh, they're offputting to a lot of people. Uh, that that's clear. But in a way, Those are the rules of a, of, uh, an intricate dance of design and working with constraints, working with budgets and people's prefer and so on. It's part of the whole process of, of exploring what is best for a particular site.

John 9:21

And I suppose layering on constraints is one way to unlock creativity in the build. So, why don't we, uh, if for folks that are joining us on YouTube, we, have some photos that we wanna share. And James, I would love for you to kind of walk through these photos and give us some color commentary about this build and about the process, that you went through.

James 9:44

It sounds like a plan, as long as your viewers are okay with it. Um, uh, I think that's the way to go.

John 9:49

And if folks are listening to this, Check out the YouTube version so that you can follow along visually with us. So James, what we're looking at right here, I'm assuming that this is the old structure and we're gonna start from we ground zero.

James 10:04

So ground zero. client, gracefully, invited, uh, me to, explore the property. So we had a look at the existing structure. I like to measure things. I like to understand how the property was used, how the family uses the structure itself. So we were out there early on in the process, uh, right in the winter, and, um, difficult access, no paved roads, unshaved, secondary roads, getting back into the back country. But this is what we did so that we could get a feeling. Of the It is remote. It's very private, and it has a history to it. This has been used by their family over generations. There's a compound there. It's on a point, John, and there are several buildings, and in some ways there's a strong there feeling not to change any of the, uh, the, the, uh, structures at all. Now, creativity is one thing, but, uh, buildability and, and what actually makes sense in, uh, the real world, whatever that means to you and I, is another, so I like to work with real. Uh, I, I, I do like the constraints, John. So right away what we did was we did our own inventory of the property, the history of it, their, their wishes for the, for the, for their new cottage, uh, project. And then. Uh, as soon as we could in the spring, I had a surveyor, get on the site. Now, having a surveyor is really important because on one hand you want to be very clear about your boundaries, about setbacks from the lakes. Where is the actual lake level? Typically, it's done geo, genetically, meaning it's based on a fixed height over C level. So you've gotta get out there, you need someone to map it for you. Uh, IEA, um, a, a land surveyor. And, that is instrumental in understanding the actual setbacks, because sometimes you'll find that the, water levels, for example, sometimes they're just mapped, sometimes they're on municipal mapping. Sometimes they have different rules. You need to know the rules that they're working with because it significantly affects your, your build zone. Then our surveyor will map the actual setbacks that are. Current with the municipalities, also with the conservation authorities. In our area, John, water levels are very, uh, they're, they're critical and they go up and down in some areas. So there are sensitive, environmentally sensitive areas that may be prone to high water pretty much on, on most lakes, and particularly rivers in, uh, cottage country. So it's important to get that down. A, a secondary, uh, function of the surveys that I'm really interested in is their ability to produce the, the topography, the topographic lines of the project. So they're in the bush taking, um, elevations of, of the slope. Uh, which you can see there that those are the, the topography lines. And then, uh, as you might know, John, I'm working a lot with 3D modeling. So these days I'm actually putting the, the, the, the contours into 3D modeling programs, even physical models like this one here, so that we can get a real understanding of what the slope is as well. Because where we position the building is gonna affect the cost, it's gonna affect the, the, the functions, um, the, uh, and the, the buildability of the structure as well. Hardly anybody does it. I hardly see it at all. It's, uh, it's a real important thing to do. One thing I, I find too, John, uh, you can learn a lot as you go through the process. And if you think of it as a process instead of just services, you learn from the people that are doing, uh, doing the, the, the work in the field. If you don't mind, I can tell you a little quick story about one thing I learned in the field one day, well, on one of our projects on, uh, on lake of base, which is, uh. Closer to our, uh, our hometown up in Huntsville. Um, we were in the bush and the server had, uh, uh, was telling me about the trees at the encounter in the bush. And what we have up here are these beautiful balsam furs, and they have these little blisters on them. And he was busy telling me that if you ever cut your hand in the bush, uh, you can poke these little blisters and you put the little sappy turpentine like, uh, substance on your fingers, and it'll, it'll heal your wounds right away. Well, I thought that was pretty amusing. And then he turned around and he had blood all over his arms, and I thought it was some kind of prank or joke. And it turned out that he wasn't paying attention for a second. And with the hatchet, he actually cut his finger. And, and true to his word, he healed it up with the, the, the, the ball on first half. So now we know with a little bit of, uh, knowledge for, for your viewers, there is that, um, in the woods, our plants that can help us out. And, uh, knowledge is all around us in the bush.

John 15:02

Uh, I didn't know about the, the, the balsam fur sap. I did know that about Yaro, which is a, a plant that grows naturally around here, be used to help stop bleeding. I think that that, that is an incredible point, James, about thinking about this in stages and going through this process is incredibly important because you don't wanna put the cart before the horse. You wanna make sure that you understand that topography of the land, how that impacts the cost, um, is it within the right zoning and regulations. Um, I'm curious about those setbacks. So it seemed to me like there were different setbacks for different authorities and you had to find kind of like the common ground there, or is this, is this two regulatory bodies working together to determine what the setback is?

James 15:45

that, that's a great question, John. Sometimes the, uh, requirements are conflicting. And they, they all go back to the highest use of the land. And compatibility with bylaws, which are set in place to protect the environments on the lake. In a lot of cases, in most cases, on tough sites, I am going through, committee of adjustment approvals, and there's a, there's a discovery period where you come up with a design, you come up with your, your site, and you sit down and you have the conversation. At the end of the day, the municipality will tell you whether they feel that they will approve your proposal, uh, or they won't. And a lot of times it's strictly based on setbacks. It's based on frontage on the lake, uh, it's based on the height and, constraints of topography and the high, the, the, hydraulic characteristics of the site, meaning. Are you building over an area that has surface water running through it? Like, are you building on the edge of a ravine or a watershed? So in preparation, we're also, uh, having, um, a study done by a hydro geologist. They'll come out and they'll take those topography lines and they'll tell us where the water's running. Are we building in a way that's blocking the flow on the site, and is that impacting anything on the floodplain? And then, which introduces another layer of complexity is, is we, we have the, the flow characteristics is how are we affecting the environment? So when we put together our argument for our proposal for this, this project, it was the, uh, the municipality, it was the conservation authority. Um, it was, uh, neighbor's concerns as well, and also effects on the environment. Now, this particular lake. Uh, has a pretty deep shore, uh, uh, a shoreline, which leads to deep water. It is what is considered a lake trout, cold water lake on Ontario. The concern is we are down by the shore. We're in the low lying area. There's lots of trees in there. The concern was, if we are too close to the lake, people are gonna see it, the, the, the new cottage. And that was a concern at the time because apparently, the mayor of the municipality had just built a, the beautiful new, uh, just a giant palace of a timber frame home on the lake. And this quickly, was going to catch up with, with his, um, his feet there. And on smaller lakes, it is an issue. It seems a little silly, but people don't like when there's something new and they're, they don't know about, it just came up. So a lot of the questions like there's, there's, it just seems that there's a little bit more, um, scrutiny of the projects. So on this project. The, the, the, the last constraint was addressing the environmental characteristics so that this clearing of this land and building of this building would not add to the siltation, or heating up of the, the sensitive cold water habitat. In the end, it was a proposal that addressed all these constraints, and those constraints actually enhanced and created a more rigorous design that started to follow the contours and each part of the, the layout, which we, which we can discuss, addressed particular concerns from the, um, regulatory, uh, bodies.

John 19:16

Let me ask you, did you have to do anything special to address the mayor's feelings in your proposal?

James 19:21

Well, there, there are issues of, of scale. You, you know, John, um, in college country there's two ways of thinking about design. So one is that, um. Cottage country is, there's a lot of history to it. It goes back to Scottish and Irish settlers heading up by train to resorts, American, American, Buffalo, Detroit, coming up to the lakes. And they were resorts. There were hotels on the lakes. You got to them by steam ships such as the, the sigu on Lake Muskoka and others. And there's this idea that everything was sort of traditional filigree, like beautiful Victorian, uh, peaks and, and very sort of like formal, beautiful style of building. Well, the days of having the trays that will actually build like that and the cost, um, those are beautiful values. They're beautiful places. I've built many uh, beautiful, more traditional style buildings. And I think this is what, in this case, the mayor was looking for. Where, where are the steep peaks and where's the, the, the, the beautiful gables? You know, all that fancy stuff. Now, on the other hand, the, the other cue that we can take, we can look at, uh, iconic Canadian architects. And you, you might have heard me say this at, on, on previous podcasts, but, uh, I draw a lot of inspiration from, uh, the late Canadian architects such as Arthur Erickson, uh, Ron Tom, they were building out on the West coast. They were dealing in the real world of steep sites, access, views, nature, which brings up the second wave building, which is more modern, but using natural materials, big Douglas fur beams, open glass areas, uh, weathered steel. And the, the advantage of these more modern structures is in some ways. They can be more subtle in the environment because they don't have the big steep peak roofs. They don't have all the fancy details and the turrets, they're simple glass areas. And when you're in them, John, you have a real sense of connection to the lake. They're just simplified and, uh, modern at their best. That's what they are. So the challenge was, showing the, the mayor that this type of more modern structure could be used to reduce the profile in the lake. blend in a little bit. The Douglas fur works in the trees. Everything doesn't have to be traditional. And if I can give you another, uh, mini story, John, I did another project in a small town outside of Toronto, in Claremont, Ontario. And. Uh, with, without any disrespect to any, uh, designers out there and builders. Claremont is a small, traditional farming community with a lot of history to it. There are some places where you just, overall, you just shouldn't build modern structures. And, uh, I had worked with a owner there to do a very sensitive addition to a century home that he did, included a breezeway and walkouts and he had beautiful gardens and so on. While we were doing that, a, a builder, uh, developer had gotten in and they pretty much built a modern house that looks like a mini mall in, in a street that had like chicken coops and, and um, horses, the hobby farm, old church, century church. And it was traumatizing for the owners there. So this is what I try not to do, like when I get on a lake, John, the first thing to do is to respect the environment. And there's a word that your listeners might, uh, uh, like it's a, it took me a while to figure out exactly the, the, the, the full meaning of this, but architectural call it the, the genius, uh, Loki of a place. It's a Latin word, and what it means is it's the spirit of, of the site. So when we get to the site, the site will let you know as you start to design and you, you will know what works best and to answer your, your, your, your fuller question. Even the mayor, you can even turn the most critical observer, and they're critical because they care about the lake.

John 23:28

Right.

James 23:29

If you have the right discussion and you're sensitive to the conditions and you can express your ideas or explore them and share their concerns and ideas, everybody can be happy. Even the.

John 23:41

That's why I think it was totally worth unpacking that because, you know, at first glance it, on the surface it may seem like there was some pride and some ego involved in there. But I think to your point, as you, as you found back the layers, it was really just a true love for the lake and wanting to preserve the nature and environment there.

James 24:00

Yeah. Yeah. And, and John wh which, which brings it on onto the next thing is the approach by the town. And then they, they, they started to get this, uh, a little bit later. the, their, their approach on the site was, if you're building anything new, it's gotta stay, it's gotta be pushed back away from the lake. Right now you're 20 feet from the, the, the shore. It's a little bit lower lying, compared to the adjacent land. And there's a lot of tree covering there. And we, and we either leave the building there'cause we don't see it now, and we like that or push it way back. Now the problem with pushing back on this property was that it pushes you up the hill. And which is completely, uh, acceptable. So if you're back, 120 feet or even a hundred feet, you're up about 40 or 50 or 60 feet, probably around more like 40 or 50 feet, which takes you above that shrub line. And then you're really sticking out. Like you were just out there and you, do you look like the love boat cruising along the shore with this big, big, um, giant structure, uh, floating by. So that was the, that was the, the first thing. And, you'll see in some of the, the photos, like we, we, we really had to dig into the site. Um, but there were some surprises underneath the surface as well that that started to affect this positioning where we wanted to keep, we wanted to keep the structure near the shore and we wanted to keep the roof lines low. Which is why the flat roofs made sense. But the other constraint that we haven't talked about was as we went up the hill, there was some subsurface, there's a point where the subsurface, I guess you could call it rubble or talus. It turned into rock face,

John 25:45

let's let, let's get into the, let's get into the build. So we, so like taking us up to this point, you, you went to the site, you got the survey, you, you got a feel for the land. Uh, you went through the zoning commissions, regulatory approval from the, uh, the town, uh, the municipality, and so now you're beginning to build. So let's, let's get into that a little bit. Let's, I guess, let's, maybe we can follow some of these pictures along and we can get that.

James 26:14

what I, uh, recommend to clients early in the process is when we get on the site, let's have a look around. Maybe we can clear out some of the dead, the shrub trees. There are trees that are affected by, by, uh, boring beetles, like the ash bore. Some of them are already dead or, or they're gonna be dead soon because they're full of carpenter ants and so forth. These are some trees that we can clear and then we can do some explorations on the terrain. I suggest getting a, uh, a mini excavator in there, a good crew, maybe even a, like a little skid steer. Have a little team and pick around on, uh, on the rocks and see what is, what is underneath there. Generally, you can find a couple of things. It's either, um, what most people would just call, like soil, I guess, or gravel or soil, that which you can build in. Uh, there's also, uh, bedrock, which you can build in. Now there's a problem when part of the terrain is on one type of soil and the other is on another type of soil. So we really gotta dig down and what we thought we had here with solid bedrock, but it turns out after, uh, hammering on the stone there with what is known as a, uh, with whole hammer or a a rock hammer, the rock was, was fairly loose. So you can't have that. So you've gotta clear it out, you've gotta dig back to more solid, terrain. And what we did here is we cleared out and we were left with just a long strip of terrain there, which was very long and narrow. And there were some construction challenges, which I'll, I'll tell you about shortly. but it had to be scraped out. And we scraped out quite a ways and we had to bring an engineered fill, which goes down in six foot lifts, or drops, I guess you would call it, with what is known as a stone slinger. And it's tamped down and the engineer comes in and certifies that you can build. On this level now, this is what we did on, on this site. And uh, however, what I would recommend when we're at that point with, on a new project, I would ask viewers, well, instead of a lot of work on the terrain, because sometimes it does include blasting, it includes removal of material. You, you, you take it to landfills, it takes up space in landfills. Although we try to reuse a lot of the stone for the sites scaping, would you consider making simplifying things and going on piers or having a partial basement instead of a full basement? You are in cottage Paradise out in the environment. You're not in a city. it, it's not necessary to, uh, it may not be necessary for you to have the full basement and the giant rectangular footprint. Can we work with the, the site a little bit more closely?

John 28:51

because you wanna follow the form of the land. And just so I'm following you correctly and do going the route of the full basement, let's just use that as an example. You would need to do a lot more blasting and potentially granite,

James 29:04

Well, uh, exactly John. And, uh, if, if you know, the material, granite is pretty dense and, and, uh, what is done is, is, um, with a construction company, as you know, John, I'm a registered architect. It's on Lakeside Architecture Inc. I have a separate completely un, unrelated company, which is focused on the logistics of getting things built and also tracking costs and, and making those final decisions on. The best way to build that is Lakeside Construction Management, Inc. What I've learned on that side is. Everything adds costs and adds work. So if we're blasting, that means there's drilling down into the rock, there's putting C four or other explosives in there. You've gotta have the match on there. There's a certain time period in the year when you can do the blasting. You do the blasting, you've gotta take it away. Any amount of blasting is probably gonna start at 40 to 50 grand up here on a property. And there are people that will sink in 150,000, 200,000,$250,000 and more on Lake Muskoka, on Lake Bays, so that they can get their ideal, uh, building there. But if that's your ideal building, like maybe you've got the wrong site, if you've got to sink so much, money into something which I think is wasteful, and maybe your viewers would be relieved to think, well, maybe we can work with the terrain, work with some levels, clear the land a little bit and see what it suggests. In a lot of cases, John. What it means is we build on different, uh, terraces. We try to clear some terraces on the site. That's why that the, the surveyor's topple is important. We can do the 3D modeling and we'll work with the train instead of working without it. here's an example here. So the, the, the, the issue was, and, and this is interesting, the issue is that we're, we're cutting into the terrain now. So there, there's another constraint is how much removal of, of the site do you want? And this is, this is what transpired. This is what was required to keep the height down. So we did dig into the hill there. And what we do here is a lot of, uh, for international viewers and, and, uh, our, our US followers. Um, what we do is we'll use ICA lot of ICF. Foundation construction, which is basically insulated forms. They're set up, they go up pretty quickly. You fill them with rebar that's engineered, and then you fill it with concrete and that stays in place. You can quickly build structures, you can build retaining walls with it. Well, the other constraint now is we're, we're building this wall on the slope. We're cutting into the slope. Now, is there water underneath the ground that is fighting against our wall there? Because that water will increase huge hydrostatic pressure on the walls. If it doesn't push over your walls, it can cause water to get into basements. So another good reason to consider going on piers. However, in this case, what we did is we also done trenches on the upload side that go underneath the slab. They're reinforced and with weeping tile, with a weeping tile system, they drain out underneath the, the slab and they're, they also have a heat trace in them. This is a little bit of site knowledge, but everything is possible. It adds some costs. We explore going from the simple to the more complex, and there's always a level of constraint, which is requiring, uh, some design response.

John 32:26

Sure, yeah, this is, um, and so I, I suppose that that was a concession that you made because of, obviously you wanna work with the land and you wanna maximize the most flat area possible. And it, and those are in limited supply here, so that was just kind of a, a design concession that you made. So to keep that, that location.

James 32:45

Well, what what You'll notice the, if you have a, a look at the, the image there too, the, the actual outline of the building started to follow the line of the leased excavation. And that might seem fairly straightforward, but 99 out of, uh, a hundred, let's say 99.9% of cottages luxury homes, that, that are built. a box, a big box is placed on the site. It has a gable roof on it, and, um, it looks high from the roadside and they look enormous from the lakeside. And that's what turns off a lot of people from new development by the use of these long walls. If you can parallel the site, if can step down the site in a beautiful way. And there are some, uh, there, there were some great, uh, um, American architects as well, that were, uh, quite highly respected modernists, such as Richard Nutra down in, California, la Palm Desert. They knew how to build with the slopes and they were building with long walls. So one little tidbit or one little, uh, uh, jewel for your listeners is can we use walls, long walls? Let's stop thinking about boxes Only can we use long walls to adapt to the site, reduce the amount of excavation, um, follow contours, create new site lines. It's a really exciting way to build, and it comes from the site and not from our. preconceived notion of what we think we should build there before we really explored the site.

John 34:12

And it, it brings it back to, uh, what was the Latin phrase that you mentioned earlier? I've forgotten.

James 34:18

Oh, the, the, the genius, uh, Loki.

John 34:20

Uh, and the building with the spirit of the site. And it seems like that's just kind of a guiding principle throughout where, you know, even the blasting example, right? You sure it adds cost to do blasting, but you're also kind of really making a visceral impact on the environment by doing that. Not just the, the, the, the earth itself, but then also the every, everyone around has to be subject to all that blasting. So that's one example. And then with the walls and working with the land as another way to not disrupt that environment as much. So I'm seeing that as a common thread throughout.

James 34:57

Yeah. I, I, I think there's some value in not fighting what the land is telling you. And not everything has to be so forcefully and aggressively and compatibly done. There's a design process there, and it can be based on the constraints. It can be based, it'll be based on budget. It'll be based on the lay of the land. It can be based on, on your, your neighbors, their concerns. And, uh, even though the, the mayor, him or herself, you know, I like to think that everybody's points are valid and I try to address them. And I think just being responsible, it's the right thing to do and it creates new, exciting form, unexpected form, meaning you, one day you'll, you'll, you'll look at the property and say, wow, this really makes sense. I'm glad we didn't blast that hillside. Or We see how going higher here would've really diminished not only our neighbors have used, but just overall would seem too, too big for the lake. So that's, that's, uh, what one of the things that, um. Uh, that I've, uh, discovered with our, with our clients. Something else that's interesting too, John, is, is the idea that, well, do we need to, is it still like one long box with some long walls on it? Or can we consider, can we think of things almost like parts? So can we break down your ideas and parts? And the thing I like about, uh, this presentation, John, is that what we're discussing is we're not discussing actual building. We're discussing a process of how do we break down the site? How do you build the unbuildable, how do you approach challenging sites? And I would say if you have a challenging site, it's a great opportunity. Don't be discouraged, but there's work to be done in terms of communicating ideas and, and testing them out too. So one way I like to test out ideas is. I'll take your ideas and or, or client's ideas and we'll lay out in, in our 3D modeling, we'll, we'll lay out all the ideas and spaces at work, kitchens and living rooms. Do you face, you're gonna face the lake. Are you gonna face the sunset? Do you want the bedrooms to face the morning sun? If you like that morning sun sign on your face. Some people don't. Um, guest spaces. And then can we break apart the structure? Like, can we think of it almost in terms of separate pavilions with their, even their own characters sometime, and then redistribute them somewhat on the site, add breezeways and the whole thing becomes more organic. And then you've got the ideal view from your living room. You've got the great, long view, um, from bedrooms, nice entrance, breezeways, sometimes drawn to the space in between the buildings. So if we break it down and atomize it a little bit, meaning just pull things apart, it's that space in between. That's really interesting. And in our environment on the lakes, like in the winter, it, it's, it is quite cold. but if you're sheltered from the wind, it makes a big difference. And the, the, the shoulder seasons spring and, and fall. It can be quite nice being outdoors, but it helps you have a bit of a wind break. So can we use the ability to spread things out on the site plan a little bit to create some useful outdoor spaces? And there's a precedent for this with, as you know, John from our previous discussions, farmers, they would, they would build and, have their, have a, um, uh, a, a row of trees blocking the northwest wind. farmers that wanted to have a usable space in, in the winter, outdoors, they would have that space facing the, the south or southwest, blocking the northwest wind. They could do work outside when it's above freezing. If there's sunshine out, it's actually pretty comfortable to work outside. But if you have a wind on you at that same temperature, it's not super great. If you ask, uh, anybody that's worked outside. So that, that's, that's my, the, the next big idea is that let's find those terraces levels, views. Like, let's be guided by some terraces, some views, like, let's work with the site instead of feeling flustered by, wow, it's really steep coming in. The builder said that we're not gonna be able to drain to our septic. We're down too low, we're down too high. We've got a blast. We can't get the hydro in. Like all the, all these issues, they're actually opportunities, but it's a process of, of incrementally, um, really observing, the assets that your site has.

John 39:11

Mm-hmm. there's a lot of thought and intention that has gone into so far, location and the footprint and the orientation of this build. And now for folks that are joining us on YouTube and they can see we're starting to get into some framing. There's some, there's some, uh, construction that's happening here. is this all, uh, you, you mentioned you like to use timber frames. Is that, uh, is that what, what's going into this

James 39:39

Yeah, we're, so we're, we're starting at the, uh, uh, we're, we're, we're starting at the lowest level. And uh, apologies. The viewers that are interested in, in only the, the, the eye candy, uh, version of things.

John 39:49

the end to see that.

James 39:50

Well, there's that, and you can go to our website, lakeside architecture.ca. You'll see the latest and the greatest. Also, if you hit up our, uh, Instagram, you can see, what I'm working on week to week. but in this session here, understanding the steps might even be more helpful to you because that's where you can make decisions and you have the most impact on how things are done. So what we discussed so far is preparing the site, working with the site constraints, the, uh, necessity and opportunity to break up the floor plan. So it follows contours and different I, uh, surface elevations. And if we're, typically what I'll do is, we'll, we'll do concrete down below if clients want it. I like the idea of having full timber frame structures, which you can see on our, our website. however, for people that, um, are unfamiliar with the technology, basically there, there's two technologies that work really well in cottage country. One are ICF foundations. Uh, most people are familiar with them. Most of the builders, I, I would say, and, and a lot of cottages may be familiar with them, they're not too common outside of cottage country. Um, what they are, are systems of insulated forms that are lightweight. They pop open, they're separated by, spacers that can receive reinforcing bars, concrete poured into them, and then they are set in place. What a lot of viewers may not know is that you can actually, with the ICF, you can get pretty creative. And, um, in my past, I've, I, you know, John, I, I like to learn about all, I'm an architect, but I also like to learn how things are, are built and put together, particularly on the construction management, side of things. So once you take some of the training, I've done the new DUR ICF training. I've trained in timber frame construction. I've, I've physically, uh, built construction, um, worked equipment, everything is possible. And even with the ICF, which seems like it's a basic system, and you get your nice little insulated rectangle, you can be creative with it. You can thicken walls, you can, uh, create more, um, articulated structures. You can have breezeways in between it. So my suggestion is. It is a good system for setting up, uh, concrete really fast and think of it in, in terms of panels. Now, timber frame is what, what I like to put on top of it. Typically we're using, uh, Douglas Fir. I've brought in a lot of Douglas Fir out of BC and I previously, I've built a lot with, uh, uh, panels, structural panels. Um, some of them have come from the states. There's panels in Ontario and uh, Quebec as well, depending on your particular project requirements. The, the idea of timber frame or this version of it is a little bit different from, traditional, uh, framing that you see on all a lot of cottages. This is post and beam. It has more in common with probably mid-century modern post and beam ways of building. What it is, is it's posts and then the posts are straddled with either like. You either double the posts or you double the beams and, and different structural members straddle each other. So it's a good way of putting together construction components. If you want the traditional frame and you want the mortars, endow, uh, connections and all that, you can do that. But this is a fast, really effective way of getting the look. And, uh, it is true to its nature. It builds a open, open interior with long spans, which really fits that northern environment quite well.

John 43:32

Okay, so is what we're, what we're looking at here. This is the, the posts, the beams, and then the joists over

James 43:38

Yeah. This is just the first, uh, level where the, the structure has been, uh, extended to the exterior. It doesn't include the, the main structure at all.

John 43:47

And then this, are these the panels that you're talking about?

James 43:51

Yeah. This, this is just closing in the, uh, the, the structure. What, what I've done In a lot of cases, if you want to have. If you wanna expose the timbers, in most cases I'll put the interiors on the inside and exterior walls. I'll have panels with clear birch on one side, or sometimes we'll use, um, a nickel gap, Douglas fur, cladding, which basically is Douglas fur with little strips in it. These are materials that you learn about just being on the field and seeing what, what is being built on the lake. But the idea is to have a lighter looking timber frame structure, uh, above, and then a heavier, concrete structure below. The advantage of this, uh, that, that you'll see viewers will see in later photos and, uh, and, and other projects as well, is that when you build with the, the concrete on the bottom, you can build a ledge around it and you can place stone. On the basement level, the advantage of having the stone on part of your structure is that, it's authentic. You can match it to the site, you can get it from a local quarry, and visually it ties your architecture to the ground. Like it looks like the real thing.'cause it is the real thing. And it also protects the structure from the, the snows that we get up in cottage country. And um, I know on our particular, uh, cottage, we will have three to four feet of snow blowing in across the water in the winter. Uh, a lot of places have same amount of snow. You need to protect the lower part of the structure. Stone is a beautiful way to do it. And using local stone supports the local economy, which we love to,

John 45:34

And so is that what we're looking at here in this picture is you've incorporated the stone into the foundation,

James 45:40

uh, what you're looking at the picture there is, is more use of the quarry stone for building up levels on, on the site and. Uh, on the previous photos, what we were doing is we're building up a base so that we can put stone cladding. It's real stone, it's band cut on heavy equipment, but it helps if you have the, uh, ledge like on the next few photos, if you have the ledge there. And this might seem pretty basic, but thinking in terms of stone below, like timbers above and, uh, flatter roofs, which we can get into, is a good way to build So, John, the thing is there's a short, construction season here, and likewise in, in, uh, in, in places in the States, like a lot of the, uh, upstate, places that, you have, uh, south of the border, there there's a, uh, a constrained. building season. So we wanna get as much built as possible. Uh, of course it just turns out that, um, we become experts at building in the winter because things just go that way sometimes, and you build in the winter. But if we can get things done, buildings closed in, in the wind, uh, in the summer, and have things closed in by the fall, meaning the roof is on, the windows are on, it means that you can, uh, have workers working all winter. Uh, and they're not gonna be terribly uncomfortable. Now what we have here is Douglas fir timbers, and they, they'll span 10 to 14 feet is what I like. And between them we'll have purlins, which are smaller members, and then across those, the actual Douglas four tongue and groove planks will span about six feet at the max for a three and a half inch board, four feet. If you're going like one and a half inches. There's a little bit of, finesse there that you can play with to see the look that you like. I like the, I like the big spans personally. And, um, what you end up with is big open spaces. It can go up quickly, and the idea is if we can then clot it with panel systems and I'll discuss a couple of, uh, ways of building with panels, then you are really ahead.

John 47:45

I bet you those beams are fun to put in.

James 47:48

Well, they're, uh, they're heavy and, uh, it takes a pretty solid crew, with some very long beams. We'll, we'll have a crane in there and, and, uh, there's, there's a few ways of getting things in place, but typically, uh, it's helpful if you have a crew that is experienced in, uh, in timber frame construction, timber frame, or, or post beam. Now here's a, here's a, a good one. so John, part of the, part of the challenge is we wanna build, we wanna build modern. Meaning, simplified open spaces, unobstructed views to the environment, but it, things don't need to look austere. And there are wonderful design magazines out there, but, but the result, they make all modernism look very slick and way to austere. So what I like to do is by using these natural materials, it warms things up. Like you can have a totally modern structure and it's super strong. Like these are super strong structures. They're gonna last indefinitely and they go up quicker. And you enjoy the beauty of the warmth of wood. There's something about that Douglas Fir John that just goes with those Canadian Shield Lakes and, and for, uh, international builds. it know it's a global market these days, John and everything gets shipped out pretty, pretty readily. This sort of construction. This will work in upstate New York. It'll work on ski Chas in Colorado. out on the west coast. There's a big market for it, and I, I think people are familiar with it for traditional construction, but there's a whole new way of, of building where it's just a little bit lighter than traditional timber frame. It's post and beam. The connections are different. Less reliance on steel fasteners, more focused on, on, uh, other, fasting systems. So there's a lot of benefit aesthetically to this system as well. And it connects you to the site because it's natural and it's organic.

John 49:51

Excellent. Well, James, let's, give the, the listeners and the viewers a little eye candy

James 49:58

Yeah, let's do it. This is it. This is what it's all about.

John 50:03

this I'm, I'm assuming is one of your, uh, 3D renderings.

James 50:06

Yeah, that's right. That's, that's, uh, prior to, to the bill. So what I'd like, uh, uh, viewers to, to consider is the most important thing is your vision. And you're the one with a vision. You're the expert on the site. Um, you deserve to fully explore your opportunities and you do have opportunities. What, what I would do is like, there, there's a lot of media out there and there is an overwhelming amount of ma uh, of material that you can look at when you see something like this. Like you can take a part of this, like this is obvious, a, a big dream here. first thing is to establish your own dream and to realize that this is about something more than building a cottage or a vacation home. This is about a vision. Do you have a vision and are you willing to explore it fully? Is it, is it important to you if you have that in you? It's a good process. And you can take something like this, you can take a part of it, you can say, well, uh, that looks, uh, enormous and, uh, I wouldn't build that. Uh, but maybe you would build a part of it. Maybe you would have a, a cabin or a studio and think of it more as a system. You know, can I use, can I see myself taking part of this and adapting it to our site? Like, can I adapt this? The issue, John, with a lot of the prefab stuff out there, and there are well-known metal prefab systems and there are prefab, uh, panel systems. The issue is they are not flexible. They're not flexible to begin with, and there's no commitment from the designers of the systems to'em, to sites because that's not what they do. They're manufacturing a product. Here's the product. Uh, what, what I like to offer as an alternative to clients is bring the vision. Let's see what we can do it. and, uh, it approaches art and poetry more than construction. At some point. I like to keep it real and get it built, but there should be a big vision like a vision of beauty, of being really functional and useful and being strong and sturdy. No drywall. Well, lemme correct that. Some people want some drywall for various reasons, and that's okay. But we have an opportunity to go natural materials. Douglas fir, clear birch reclaimed hemlock floors, quarry stone, if you're in Muskoka. Please try to match the stone that you have on the site. Like, what I like to do, John, is I like to get actual samples and then go to the quarry and see if we can mix, get, get mixes that are really close to the character of the site. I do a lot of poured concrete floors. Oops. Um, we, it's our engineers next door. I'm just putting it out there that it's not related to architecture related, uh, assemblies. Our insurance company would make us say that. But John, what, what, what we do a lot of is, we'll, we'll do, uh, poured concrete floors and I like to go on the site, get some of the gravel, get some of the, the, um, stone that we have on site and match it and then put it into the mix of the concrete. Add some Portland cement there, and have a very clean looking stone that relates to your, your site.

John 53:11

This is, this is all fantastic and I think your point is well taken in that, um, you need to have a vision. You need to know what you want. So folks, for folks that are watching this, for folks that are following along, if you, uh, where, how can they, how can you help them develop their vision? What if somebody has ideas but they don't really know how to put it all together in a way to really convey that to you?

James 53:35

Well, John, here's a great first step. Everyone thinks that, or a lot of people that we've talked to think that design is one huge immediate commitment, and what I suggest is check out our website, lakeside architecture.ca. Give me a call. Typically, I'm either on site, uh, in, in a manufacturing facility someplace looking at stone or steel or windows or I'm in my studio. So give me a call and what I can do is I can give'em a quick demonstration on our 3D modeling of the types of projects that we do. Then show me your ideas, and I'll give you a quick, it's a quick freebie, let's call it that. You know, they, they say that nothing is free. There's no free lunch. I'll give you a quick freebie because I wanted to show you, there's so much opportunity, uh, and it's a fun process. Let's do a little quick exploration and visitors can decide for themselves. Is this valuable? Can we see ourselves exploring? What can we do with our site plan? Do we go to the next step? How do we situate a building next step? How much would, would this cost? Do we want to go into full floor plans? How far do we go? There's steps to the design process. They're really fun, they're super productive, and there's always an off ramp at each stage. If you think it's going too far, it's too much commitment. You can always put back. The thing that I find is, is that I caution, people that wanna build their, their dream there, particularly if they're building the unbuildable. Why settle on one consultant or one builder on what they believe? Let's test it. Let's get your ideas, let's get exactly right and let's use the technology we have now. The latest software, the latest construction management software that's tracking lifetime. The, the costs really quickly. And by quickly, I mean, you can get an idea of things in five days. You can get, uh, a preliminary idea of something that might really work out for you and your partners and your family. Um, on the other hand, other projects, uh, you can, if you're building a long-term dream, if you wanna stay in the process, you can stay there a year. You can stay there in two years, continue designing while you're building. But my approach is to test in 3D, make it real, make it beautiful, make it buildable. And then most importantly, I want you to unleash your vision. And we're serious about that. It's, it's, it's a, it is a real calling for a lot of us, and I hope it is for, uh, your visitors as well.

John 56:03

Excellent. And so folks who wanna take you up on that freebie you have, you've put together a, uh, a PDF Guide of Reflection questions to help guide users to, or potential customers to expressing their dream homes. Is that, and so folks can get that@lakesidearchitecture.ca, correct.

James 56:23

Yeah, that's right John. Uh, if, uh, viewers want to get onto Lakeside architecture ca, have a good look around. There's links to the social media. You can see the latest work. There's a lot of, of the latest going on, uh, going ons on there. I think that's a new word I just invented. The going ons. They're, they're all on there. They can pick up the PDF and it's helpful if you, if you have an idea of what, what of, of what you're kind of interested in already. If you have a scrapbook. And if there are ideas they had on Pinterest or there's, there's great sites such as house.com and, and, and numerous other sites they can go on, start to pull it together, but use that as a guide. Just so I know where you're coming from. Like what's, what's important to you? for me there is no, and I've said this before, there's no silver bullet to design. It's more of an exploration, and at the end of the day, the viewers are the experts, but we've got to draw that out and we need a process that makes sense and is incremental so we can south out all the, the beautiful details that can be pulled together into a project.

John 57:30

Excellent. Well, James, this has been a fantastic conversation. I learned a ton about building on steep sites. for folks that have that are listening along, subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. And check out Lakeside architecture.ca Until next

James 57:51

Thanks everyone. It's been fun. I hope to hear from you. Give us a call, Lakeside architecture.ca.