Stacked Box Residence inn Frogs Hollow, Grey Highlands, Ontario, Canada

Stacked Box Residence inn Frogs Hollow, Grey Highlands, Ontario, Canada is chose to hide most of this 2,000-square-foot stacked box residence behind a hillside. Rather than ruin the natural views of hilltops on their property, the clients for the House in Frogs Hollow, located in Grey Highlands, Ontario, Canada.

Instead chose avid cyclists themselves, they cut in mountain biking trails around the property, recognizing the importance of the terrain as a community recreational asset.

Residence inn Frogs Hollow, Grey Highlands, Ontario, Canada

Project Fact File :

Project House in Frogs Hollow, Grey Highlands, Ontario
Architect Williamson Chong Architects, Toronto—Betsy Williamson, Shane Williamson (partners)
General Contractor Wilson Project Management
Structural Engineer Blackwell Engineering
Photography Bob Gundu
Project Size 2,000 square feet
Construction Cost $250 per square foot

From The Desk of an Architect: Williamson Chong Architects

The house comprises two floors, with a living room and bicycle maintenance workshop at ground level, and bedrooms, bathrooms, and a family room on the second level.

A digitally fabricated stair enclosure joins the two floors, allowing otherwise-wasted understair space to become a widened entryway with a modulated rhythm that subtly references the surrounding landscape.

“You get this iconography of grasses in the stair,” juror Gregory Hoss said. The exterior cladding of the upper level, stained in iron oxide pigment, blends parametric design with more traditional shiplap siding.

Juror Cary Bernstein was impressed with how the architects took commonplace elements such as the cladding as opportunities for “exploring new technologies for fabrication and integrating in a really great way.”