Get Away: our pick of design-led holiday
homes in Quebec
Holiday plans are slowly but surely becoming feasible again and whether you’re skiing in the Eastern Townships, or hosting family coming to Montreal, you’ll want a well-designed base. Read on to discover our pick of design-led holiday homes in Quebec.
Cape Cod Cottage Near A Lake, Dorval
We have Cape Cod Cottage Near A Lake – so named because it's a minute walk to Lake St-Louis in Dorval.
The carefully crafted structure, compact and functional house was inspired from the Cape Cod cottage, a housing model popularized in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s by the Sears-Roebuck catalogue. 

And yet, the mate-rials used in this four-bedroom hideaway are all Wales: locally sourced slate, stone and timber, plus a green roof and plenty of glass. The house is divided into two wings, the first hovering high above the river and the second submerged on the ground. A river-side tree house that complements its natural surroundings.
Le Se7t Penthouse, Griffintown
Fancy staying in a former movie studio. The concept of this condominium building was inspired by the Septième art to recall the former use of the premises as a film set, built in 1975 for Watatatow to produce canadian classic films Agagukou and the popular television series Watatatow that aired from 1991 to 2005 on Radio-Canada. 

​Continuing in the reinterpretation of a cinematographic iconography,
the designers imagined an original treatment of the facades of the two buildings of the SE7T. Delimited by horizontal lines of white brick and punctuated by large windows punctuated by vertical bands of anthracite brick, each of the seven floors evokes an unrolled film roll.

Some original materials from the old buildings were also salvaged for
the new construction. The steel beams to frame the central aisle, the light fixtures, the metal plates for the benches were reused.

Penthouse units balcony are built with the full with of the unit.

Photography: Stéphane Brügger

Le Littoral, La Malbaie
Le Littoral, which is set next to the Saint Lawrence River in La Malbaie, was built from a skeleton of locally sourced, FSC-certified wood clad in eastern white cedar. The Littoral offers an exceptional view of the river and the mountains of Charlevoix.

At the height of La Malbaie, in Charlevoix, the river that has become the sea offers landscapes of striking beauty. The blues of the water marry with those of the sky and flatter the mountains that mark out their course. This view needs no artifice, no foil: one rather bows before this greatness. And that is why Le Littoral has chosen to be discreet.​

Photography: Adrien Williams

La Binocle, Bolton
For total isolation, La Binocle – on a mountainside in the Eastern Townships – is hard to beat. the Crowhill chalet concept is based on its timelessness and minimalism. Through its angular shape, the project aims above all to emphasize the beauty of the landscape in which it takes place. 

The simple open-plan living space by Montreal architect firm Nature Humaine is two inter-connected forms, the common ground of their architecture in natural settings seems to be the direct connection between the climate conditions of the place and the employed typology. The structure is from sustainable, locally sourced materials to reflect the natural beauty of the landscape in which it takes place, something which is further embraced by the large landscape-framing windows. 

This type of architecture discussed so far organizes human experience of the landscape, frames opportunities for interacting with nature, mediates and carefully superimposes smallness against the vastness. Such designs reconnect the practice to the essence of architecture, re-anchoring it in the realities of the environment.​

Photography: Félix Michaud

Les Voisines cottages, Austin
Built next to lake Gibert in the Eastern Townships, les voisines cottages, a concept design by Lysanne Pépin of  Maison Pépin in Old Montreal and Mélanie Vaugeois, violinist by training, member of the Mommies on the run quartet and co-founder of the event firm Productions Diverso.

​It is a craftsman's house, where almost everything is made to measure. The furniture is designed by Lysanne and produced locally, the corridors are made of hand-cut brick, the shower floors are also perfectly imperfect. 
This waterside getaway in Austin was completed with collaboration of Montreal-based Appareil Architecture in 2021. The timber-framed structure is clad in cedar shingles and takes its cue from nearby boatsheds, with three low-rise bays that contain the main living areas. While the exterior blends in with the wetland surroundings, inside the four-bedroom house has a more contemporary feel, with a spiral staircase and a skylight. On the lagoon side is an abundance of glass and a canopy for enjoying the outdoors, whatever the weather, and on a hot day you can enjoy a drink on the jetty while dangling your feet into the water and keeping an eye out for the local family of otters.
Les Rocquals, Cap à l'Aigle
Intersecting gabled sheds Les Rocquals form an "abstract and intriguing" house ​