YH2 Architecture Stretches a Lake Cottage into Two Cedar Pavilions Linked by a Glass Walkway

Building regulations around Canadian lakes are not sentimental. Tear down a legacy cottage and the replacement must sit farther from the shoreline, often erasing the very relationship with the water that made the site desirable in the first place. YH2 Architecture understood this when they took on Maison de la Pointe, a modest cedar-shingled summer cabin perched on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Memphremagog near Magog, Quebec. Instead of demolishing and starting fresh, they preserved the original structure and grafted a new pavilion behind it, tucking the addition into the sloping terrain so that the compound reads as two linked volumes rather than one oversized house.

What makes this project worth studying is not just the regulatory workaround but the formal language that emerged from it. The arched geometry of the original cottage's veranda became a generative motif, reappearing in window openings, vaulted ceilings, and clerestory glazing throughout both old and new construction. The two pavilions are joined by a raised glass walkway, turning the gap between them into a kind of transparent threshold that frames the pine canopy on one side and the lake on the other. The result is a residence that feels genuinely rooted in its site, both physically and architecturally.

A Peninsula as Organizing Principle

From the air, the site's logic is immediately legible. The land tapers to a point surrounded by dark water, dense with mature pines that shelter the structures from view. The original cottage holds the position closest to the lake, while the new pavilion sits higher on the slope behind it, taking advantage of the topographic drop to gain height without competing for prominence. A dock extends from the tip of the peninsula, completing the linear sequence from forest to house to water.

The drone views reveal something else: scale control. Despite the addition, the compound still looks like a collection of small buildings, not an estate. YH2 achieved this by keeping each pavilion relatively compact and letting the cedar cladding and dark rooflines recede into the tree cover. The approach is less about hiding the architecture than about deferring to the landscape's existing rhythm.

Cedar and Arches: The Original Made New

Both pavilions wear cedar shingles, a direct continuation of the original cottage's skin. The material choice is not nostalgic; it is strategic. Cedar weathers to a silver grey that blends with the rocky shoreline and bark of the surrounding pines. By wrapping the new addition in the same material, YH2 collapsed the visual distance between old and new, making the compound feel like it grew over time rather than arriving in a single construction campaign.

The arched openings are harder to miss. They appear in the kitchen's glazing, in clerestory windows above the living room, and in the curved roofline visible from the water at twilight. These are not decorative quotations; they derive from the geometry of the original veranda, scaled and adapted to fit new programmatic needs. The effect is a formal coherence that ties every room back to the cottage's DNA without mimicking its vernacular proportions.

The Glass Walkway and Spiral Staircase

The glass walkway between the two pavilions is the project's most visually striking move. Viewed from inside the living room, it reads as a transparent corridor framed by the picture window, extending toward the lake like a pier. The walkway is raised above grade, so the forest floor passes beneath it, reinforcing the sense that you are crossing between two distinct structures rather than moving through a continuous interior.

Where the walkway meets the original cottage, a sculptural spiral staircase negotiates the level change. The staircase is wrapped in white walls and topped with globe pendants, giving it an almost autonomous presence within the plan. Its timber treads and slender balustrade contrast with the heavier brick and stone surfaces elsewhere, marking the transition zone between old and new with a change in materiality and light.

Brick, Fire, and Vertical Space

The living room in the original pavilion is defined by a double-height volume anchored by a stacked brick fireplace chimney that rises from floor to ceiling. The brickwork is deliberate: courses are stacked without heavy mortar lines, creating a textured column that reads as both structural and sculptural. Firewood is stored in a niche at its base, turning fuel storage into a material display. The tapered grey brick chimney in the new pavilion echoes this gesture, though with a distinctly different profile and tone.

Arched clerestory windows above the fireplace flood the upper portion of the room with diffused light, keeping the lower zones more intimate. The combination of vaulted ceiling, tall brick mass, and arched glazing gives the main living space a chapel-like atmosphere without any of the preciousness that usually implies. It is a room built for winter evenings by a lake.

Living with the Lake in View

The kitchen occupies a vaulted space at the lake end of the plan, where arched windows frame pine trees and water in equal measure. A dark stone floor grounds the room, contrasting with the lighter wood of the ceiling vault. The island, flanked by black stools and integrated wine storage, faces the view squarely, treating cooking as an activity that belongs to the landscape rather than being sequestered from it.

The dining room continues the arched window motif, but here the bays are deeper, creating window seats that pull you into the envelope of the building itself. On overcast days, the grey light off the lake filters through the pines and softens every surface. The rooms were clearly designed with this specific quality of light in mind: warm wood tones, muted stone, and white walls that amplify whatever the sky offers.

Timber Warmth in the New Pavilion

The new pavilion, set into the hillside, leans more heavily into timber as an interior material. Corridors are lined in warm wood planks that wrap from wall to ceiling, compressing the space before it opens to glazed views of the forest. Built-in cabinetry with sliding panels and illuminated shelving turns the hallway into a functional zone rather than mere circulation. The polished concrete floor running beneath provides a cool, grounding counterpoint.

The living areas in this second volume are lower in height and more horizontal in character, with wood plank ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking winter forest. The contrast with the vaulted, brick-centered spaces of the original cottage is intentional. Each pavilion has its own spatial personality, which makes the glass walkway between them feel like a genuine passage between worlds rather than a hallway with better glazing.

Private Rooms and Quiet Details

The bedrooms and bathrooms are restrained but carefully considered. A bedroom wrapped in floor-to-ceiling oak paneling reduces the room to a single material gesture, with a pendant light beside the bed as the only ornamentation. In the bathroom, a freestanding tub sits below an arched window with frosted lower panes, offering treetop views while maintaining privacy. The brick fireplace surround beside a sliding oak door demonstrates the same economy of means: each material is used precisely, without layering for its own sake.

Plans and Drawings

The site plans trace the project's evolution across three stages: the existing cottage alone on the peninsula, the addition of a new pavilion and garage, and the final planted landscape that knits everything together. The floor plans reveal an L-shaped main level with living spaces, kitchen, and bedrooms in the original cottage, while the upper level shows bedrooms and circulation connecting through to the adjacent structure. The sections are particularly instructive. They show how the barrel-vaulted volumes of the original cottage and the new addition step down the slope in dialogue with one another, with the glass walkway bridging the gap between them at an intermediate level.

The elevation drawings confirm the deliberate modesty of the external profile. Neither pavilion rises aggressively above the treeline. The north and west elevations show how the garage addition follows the terrain downhill, while the south elevation illustrates the glazed connection between existing house and new volume stepping across the hillside. Every drawing reinforces the same principle: work with the slope, not against it.

Why This Project Matters

Maison de la Pointe is a case study in how preservation can be a generative constraint rather than a limitation. By retaining the original cottage, YH2 kept the building's privileged position on the water, avoided the setback requirements that would have severed the house from the lake, and gained a formal vocabulary in the arched veranda geometry that unifies old and new construction. The two-pavilion strategy also produces a more varied and engaging sequence of spaces than a single, consolidated house could have achieved.

More broadly, the project offers a replicable model for lakefront sites across Canada where aging summer cottages face the choice between demolition and decay. There is a third option: keep the bones, upgrade the performance, and let the new construction learn from the old. YH2's approach proves that humility toward an existing structure does not require timidity in design. The arched windows, the spiral staircase, the glass walkway are all confident moves. They simply happen to begin with a small cedar cabin on a point in the lake.

Maison de la Pointe by YH2 Architecture, Magog, Canada. Completed in 2022. Photography by Maxime Brouillet.

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