{"id":598721,"date":"2023-11-23T21:08:16","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T18:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/a-montreal-architect-built-his-weekend-home-around-an-apple-tree\/"},"modified":"2023-11-23T21:08:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-23T18:08:16","slug":"a-montreal-architect-built-his-weekend-home-around-an-apple-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-montreal-architect-built-his-weekend-home-around-an-apple-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"#A Montreal architect built his weekend home around an apple tree"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nMaxime Frapp<\/a>ier designed this modernist house around a single apple tree\n<\/div>\n
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(Photography by Adrien Williams)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Montreal-based architect Maxime Frappier grew up on a 5,000-tree apple orchard near Franklin, Quebec, where he climbed branches and played with his siblings in apple crates. Even at a young age, he loved the neat rows of trees in the orchard and how they blossomed with flowers in the spring. Decades later, these memories came back to him when he set out to build a weekend home for his family in Saint-Donat, an hour and a half north of Montreal. For years, during his family\u2019s ski trip<\/a>s to Mont Garceau, he had eyed a roughly six-acre site, but\u00a0the owner\u2019s reluctance to split up the land meant he had to wait until he could afford to purchase the whole plot.<\/span>
\n\"\"In 2019, he finally bought the site for $300,000. A year later, he started designing a new house for the property and discovered one way to bring his past to the project: a single apple tree, planted in a courtyard in the middle of the home. \u201cNostalgia is something powerful for an architect to play with,\u201d say Frappier, who\u2019s a partner at the architecture firm ACDF Architecture. When working with clients, he always wants to know about their memories, so he sat with his own too. \u201cI was kind of missing the apple tree,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought it would be great to have an excerpt of my past.\u201d<\/span>
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\"\"As for the overall design of the house, Frappier settled on a one-storey, modernist-inspired structure. He wanted it to both contrast and connect with the wild forest around it. The house sits on a circular clearing and has floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room that look out to the nearby flora. The build cost approximately $800,000, and Frappier moved in with his family in 2021.<\/span>
\n\"\"\u201cThe house itself is quite theatrical,\u201d he says. Inspired by the various rectangular structures on the apple orchard, Frappier split up his home into three wooden \u201cboxes\u201d that make up the principal bedroom, two children\u2019s bedrooms, and the kitchen and garage. The open-concept living room\u2014which has a striking 1960s-style fireplace made in France\u2014is mostly visible from various vantage points around the house. Family members walking between the boxes can look into the glassy space but still have complete privacy once they\u2019re in their own rooms. Frappier knew that his plan for such an interconnected layout had succeeded when he realized his dog was always sleeping in the same place\u2014the spot where he could see everything in the house. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of that,\u201d Frappier says.\u00a0<\/span>
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\"\"At the heart of the house is the apple tree courtyard, surrounded by three glass walls with a skylight and covered porch. Frappier bought the tree from a local shop 30 minutes away and talks about it like an adopted child\u2014one that requires care and protection, especially from the elements. \u201cThe tree helps to reveal the humour of the day,\u201d he says. It can sag with rain and ice or straighten on clear sunny days. As for the apples themselves, Frappier is usually too busy to pick them, but his father-in-law has used them\u00a0to make jelly. On most weekends, when Frappier goes to the home with his family, he thinks about the surrounding wilderness. \u201cHaving one tree as part of your family makes you understand the fragility of the forest,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n