Retreat | Reflect Architecture

Reflect Architecture has designed Retreat, a nature-forward 3- bedroom residence in Caledon, Ontario. The modest 1,600 sq ft. house is designed for flexible, efficient, and sustainable living, while forging a deep sense of connection to its forested and graded 1.5-acre property.

After years living in a downtown Toronto condo, owners Shawn Mackenzie, a Canadian hockey broadcaster and media personality, and Sydney Hoffman, a notable blogger and influencer, eventually decided to move to Caledon, located 45-minutes north of Toronto. Precipitated by the couple’s desire to be closer to nature, Retreat efficiently accommodates the clients’ needs and lifestyle on a compact, single-storey floorplate.

Occupying the southwest corner of the property, Retreat consists of three fanning wings that form a C-shaped plan. The building’s siting and orientation are an efficient architectural response to several factors, including the need to facilitate access to the outdoors, frame views of the nearby forest, establish privacy from neighbouring properties, and wash interior spaces with diffused natural light while mitigating solar heat gain.

“There was lots of intention and thinking behind how we sited and oriented the building. Once that became clear, the rest of the design really fell into place,” explains Trevor Wallace, Principal, Reflect Architecture, who drew on his own childhood experience in the Canadian outdoors and simple, nature-forward cabins when designing the budget-conscious Retreat.

Upon approach, visitors ascend Retreat’s driveway and around a thicket of trees, catching only a momentary glimpse of the house’s eastern wing. In the driveway, visitors encounter imposing panelized walls that sit partially entrenched into the earth. Two entryways only briefly interrupt the walls; where they lead is obscured from view.

“The idea behind the arrival sequence was that the building was like a found wall in the landscape that we broke apart. The entryways are identified as glowing cracks in the wall that you can slip through,” says Wallace.

Visitors enter Retreat through its eastern wing, which, in addition to the main living space, houses two guest bedrooms, a bathroom, and additional support spaces. Unlike the impenetrable walls found in the driveway, large expanses of glass overlook the property and frame primarily north-facing views of the forest and the escarpment beyond. The house’s horizontal window mullions are set above the ceiling and below the floor, creating a distinct sense of projecting outwards into nature. In the summer, large glass doors in the kitchen—the middle of the building’s three wings—can slide open to facilitate indoor-outdoor living, offering access to the couple’s garden and an open-air dining area.

“We wanted as unfettered a view as possible throughout the house,” explains Wallace. “When you’re inside Retreat, you feel the floor fall away into the landscape and the ceiling slip into the sky.”

Retreat’s generous use of glazing, in concert with the siting and orientation of its three fanning wings, washes the building’s interior spaces in diffused natural light. Retreat’s living room is oriented towards summer sunsets, while the principal bedroom, located at the house’s opposite end and facing northeast, enjoys sunrises.

Together, the ringed shape shields Retreat’s glass expanses from the driveway and neighbouring properties, balancing expansive views with the need for intimacy and containment.

The principal bedroom and bath are strategically located in the western wing, also home to a small outdoor terrace to host a morning yoga practice, as it offers the greatest privacy and access to morning light. Throughout interior spaces, Reflect Architecture has deftly balanced the challenges inherent to glass-encased houses by orienting points of focus, like beds or fireplaces, against finished walls and perpendicular to windows.

“We live in a climate of hot humid summers and freezing cold winters, and the role of a house varies greatly between the seasons,” says Wallace. “With Retreat, the question was how do we create a residence that can open up to nature in the summer months without losing a sense of intimacy inside during the winter months? We wanted the building’s inhabitants to feel both integrated into and protected from the landscape at the same time.”

While Retreat’s unique C-shaped orientation is most visible from above, Reflect sought to subtly communicate the house’s unique fanning effect throughout the interior. In the kitchen and dining area, a large island and oak hardwood floor cut a sharp angle, articulating the threshold between the building’s wings. This choice serves to delineate Retreat’s interior spaces from one another, especially important due to the building’s modest floorplate, while allowing inhabitants to experience the building’s unique plan.

In line with the owners’ desire to live efficiently, Retreat is sustainably sensitive. The predominantly north-facing orientation of the building’s generous windows only receive direct sunlight during day’s beginning and end, ultimately mitigating solar heat gain. The south-facing envelope is partially buried and derives thermal value from the earth’s mass to reduce heat loss.

Currently fitted with all-electric mechanical systems, Retreat is designed for future conversion to solar energy.

“Retreat was an opportunity to consider and analyze what a contemporary, nature-forward home is about. Throughout the design process, we thought through so many questions, like ‘How do you step out into the landscape? What does waking up on the site look like? How do you create an expansive ingestion of the landscape?” says Wallace. “Despite a conservative budget and an efficient floorplate, we hope we’ve created a building that answers those questions sincerely and eloquently.”

Photography: Doublespace Photography

Website: https://www.doublespacephoto.com/