The Magic Of Black & White

Architecture and brute economics are, for the most part, inseparable. Ultimately, the designers of those headline-grabbing small  blocks are servants of family houses. Most buildings are truly machines for living in. The fact that so many are works of art too is surely cause for celebration architecture and brute economics are, for the most part, inseparable.

​None is a straightforward representation of a specific building or interior; each is an interpretation, caught quickly and with the judgment of keen eyes and a sense of form, of shapes and shadows, the play of light cast by buildings at one moment. These are images that have the power to frame for ever our view of certain buildings and places.

​Buildings frame our lives, every day, and some of the most instantly memorable have, in turn, been framed here for us by workaday photographers. Here are portraits of the faces and facades of our towns and cities; and here is a graphic reminder of why architecture - and the way we choose to record and represent it - has always mattered to us, and always will.
Jean Verville
Located on a residential street in the Plateau Mot-Royal, the renovated "shoebox" house of Jean Verville differentiate itself from its surroundings by a stark façade design. With two contrasting colours, black bricks and white windows frame, the façade is designed to define the unique house on the street.

The back of the house is on the north side, a large window, the width of the house brings in daylight while the all white interior enrich its purity and luminosity, and enhance the simplicity of an arrangement.
Rue Drolet, Le Plateau Mont-Royal
Maison blanche
One of the challenges for many cities and metropoles is to keep the young families in town and to limit the exodus towards the suburbs. To convince them, many strategies are being set up such as an adaptive urbanism, efficient transportation offer, local services and commerces, ... Among those challenges, the housing for young families remains an issue . How to offer enough space, privacy and security in global urban housing strategy, keeping a high density of population? Common single-family homes found in urban environment are often in lack of natural light, especially on the ground floor, or deprived of intimacy.
Long vertical windows, the same proportions as the white door, puncture the white concrete brick facades.

​The white colour, omnipresent inside and outside, acts as a reflective surface and complexifies light effects.
Maison noire
Rue Alexandre-de-Sevres, Montreal
Alexandre-de-Sève Town House
Residence Marconi
Rue Alma
Greenfield Park
Papier Blanc
Michelle Masse, and her husband Jérôme Fradette parked in front of a house for sale in Greenfield Park and found a huge yard with big trees everywhere!

It all started with a common desire: a house with a floor-to-ceiling glass wall. “The starting point of our project”.