BROM Residence by AtelierCarle: A Contemporary Country House

Set along the shores of Lac Brome in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, the BROM residence by AtelierCarle advances a critical approach to sustainability that extends beyond ecological metrics. This project emerges from the confluence of memory, landscape, and material continuity, grounded in the site of a former family estate that had remained in continuous occupation for nearly a century.

BROM Residence Technical Information

• Architects^1-18: AtelierCarle
• Location: Lac-Brome, Quebec, Canada
• Gross Area: 692 m² | 7,450 Sq. Ft.
• Completion Year: 2024
• Photographs: © Alex Lesage

Aesthetic does not mean what concerns beauty, but rather what relates to the sensory, to the sensory experience that is common to both what we call political and artistic practices.

– Jacques Rancière, L’expérience esthétique

BROM Residence Photographs

Implantation and Fragmentation: Architecture as Memory Work

Rather than adhere to contemporary aesthetics divorced from context, the project operates within a philosophical framework that sees architecture as an extension of shared cultural experience. Echoing Jacques Rancière’s assertion that the aesthetic pertains not to beauty but to the realm of sensory experience, the architecture of BROM resists abstraction. It favors a situated, temporal response that repositions residential design as a contributor to a collective body of work. In doing so, the project redefines sustainability as a practice of cultural preservation and transformation within Quebec’s rapidly evolving rural fabric.

The site’s existing wooden house, dating from the early 20th century, had deteriorated beyond repair. Rather than pursue a full conservation effort, AtelierCarle adopted a site-specific conceptual strategy grounded in architectural continuity. Key elements of the original structure, including its stone foundations and chimney, were preserved and integrated into the design. Entry into the new home is choreographed through the footprint of the former residence, creating a spatial and symbolic threshold that articulates a sense of remembrance.

The architectural composition is fragmented into three contiguous volumes, a strategy that mitigates the new program’s visual mass and recalls the scale of historical rural settlements. This approach disrupts any formal monumentality, allowing the residence to adopt a vernacular proportionality that resonates with the region’s 19th-century construction logic. Preserving and incorporating the estate’s secondary buildings further reinforces this continuity, folding them into the larger landscape narrative.

The site’s topography, which slopes toward the lake, becomes an active participant in the design. It enables the creation of a full-height basement level while preserving a consistent relationship between interior and exterior spaces on the ground floor. The result is a composition that is both programmatically complex and visually restrained, guided by the logic of the land.

Material Logic: Continuity, Durability, and Craft

Material selection plays a foundational role in the architecture of BROM. Stone masonry, used for the foundations and prominent volumes, is a physical and perceptual link between past and present. These stone-clad entry volumes act as anchors within the architectural ensemble, offering both structural solidity and symbolic resonance. They become the organizing elements around which new retaining walls and programmatic pavilions are configured.

In contrast, the superstructure is defined by a more ephemeral material language. Metal framing, exposed reclaimed wood beams, and high-pitched cedar roofs establish a tectonic dialogue between permanence and transience. With their prominent four-sloped profiles, these roofs visually reference the surrounding Monteregian Hills, embedding the architecture within a wider landscape morphology.

The treatment of fenestration is a critical departure from colonial architectural traditions. Where colonial models often employ windows as compositional elements within facades, BROM reorients them as direct mediators of the landscape. The generous, strategically placed openings are not aesthetic devices but spatial and environmental integration instruments. They dissolve boundaries and privilege immersion in the surrounding territory.

BROM Residence Temporal Atmospheres

The interior organization of BROM is grounded in horizontality. The ground floor unfolds as a continuous spatial sequence, articulated by large reclaimed wood doors that offer flexibility while preserving clarity. Despite the fragmented exterior massing, the interior achieves a strong sense of cohesion and flow, reinforced by cathedral-like volumes formed by exposed wood beams adapted to new structural requirements.

Once again, stone plays a central role in the interior environment. It provides a uniform thermal mass across the project, supported by a geothermal system that speaks to the project’s environmental commitments. Material selections throughout the interior are limited to durable, low-emission, and natural components. This restraint results in a sensorial environment where tactility and longevity take precedence over decorative expression.

Furniture and built-in elements operate in a temporal register between past and present. Rather than fetishize the new or the antique, they occupy a space of suspended identity. The home becomes less a stage for lifestyle and more a space of atmospheric resonance, where the past informs the present without dominating it.

BROM Residence Plans

BROM Residence Image Gallery

About AtelierCarle

AtelierCarle is a Montreal-based architectural practice founded by Alain Carle. It is known for its critical and context-sensitive approach to design. The studio emphasizes architecture’s cultural, material, and environmental dimensions, often working with reclaimed elements, vernacular references, and landscape integration. AtelierCarle produces residential and artistic projects with a multidisciplinary team that foregrounds spatial experience, memory, and sustainability as core design principles.

Credits and Additional Notes

1. Architect of Record: AtelierCarle
2. Founding Architect: Alain Carle
3. Project Manager: Isaniel Lévesque
4. Team Members: Baptiste Balbrick (M. Arch), James Jabbour (M. Arch), Sarah Mei Mousseau (Technologist), Camille Denis (Decorator)
5. General Contractor: BBD Construction
6. Structural Engineer: VCMa
7. Mechanical Engineer: Antoine Assaf, ing.
8. Landscape Architect: Oscar Hacche
9. Reclaimed Exposed Wood Structure: Taylor Lukian
10. Masonry: Maçonnerie Sutton (supplier: Carrière Ducharme)
11. Shingles & Exterior Cladding: Groupe Sidex
12. Windows: Gaulhofer
13. Millwork: La Clef de Voûte
14. Lighting: Sistemalux & Lumenpulse
15. Wood Flooring: Unik Parquet
16. Concrete Flooring: Atelier B
17. Countertops: Béton Johnstone
18. Custom Furniture: Élément bois