Atelier Carle builds a shared Quebec retreat from concrete walls and local hemlock
SONO by Atelier Carle is a secondary residence in Wentworth-North, Quebec, designed for two friends who wanted to share a retreat while preserving independence. Completed in 2025, the house transforms a social brief into residential architecture, using concrete, hemlock timber and northern light to frame a broad Canadian landscape.
The approach is defined by three long concrete walls of different heights, scaled to the terrain and positioned as architectural anchors. Their weight gives the entrance a slow rhythm. A narrow gap between the walls leads into the house, turning arrival into a compressed moment before the plan opens gradually. This threshold also establishes the project’s material logic: mineral permanence on the approach, timber warmth toward the landscape, and a structure that follows the site instead of imposing itself on it.
Inside SONO, Atelier Carle organizes the living areas through a flexible timber structure and a sequence of rooms that unfold across the natural slope. The plan does not present the residence all at once. It moves through turns, partial views and acoustic separations, allowing shared spaces and quieter areas to coexist. This spatial arrangement responds directly to the clients’ request: a common house where proximity remains possible, but daily life is not forced into constant togetherness.
The kitchen becomes the social centre of the residence. Opening completely toward the northern panorama, it acts as a gathering place for the owners, guests and the surrounding environment. Around it, the house builds a careful balance between openness and retreat. Large windows frame shifting views, while indirect northern light changes the atmosphere of each room throughout the day.
Material choices reinforce the Atelier Carle project’s responsible construction process. The exposed timber structure was developed with a local carpenter, who produced and installed the woodwork and helped refine details on site. A significant quantity of hemlock was sourced from land adjacent to the project, then used for structural elements, columns, fascias, cladding and the north façade. The house is also anchored on existing bedrock, avoiding blasting and major excavation while reducing intervention on the site.
SONO was realized through close collaboration between Atelier Carle, the clients, builders and specialist trades. The project team included lead architect Alain Carle, project manager Isaniel Lévesque, Baptiste Balbrick, James Jabbour, Starr Wang and architectural technologist Sarah Mei Mousseau, with VCMa as structural engineer, Ingénat as geotechnical engineer and Metric Construction as contractor. Photographed by Félix Michaud, SONO presents a model of sustainable architecture where structure, process and shared inhabitation are treated as one architectural question.
Photography by Félix Michaud with courtesy of v2com
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