La Cime perches on steel stilts 12 feet above the ground within a woodland in Lanaudière, Québec. Canadian studio Naturehumaine designed what it calls as a “micro-chalet” with sloping roof and timber cladding inspired by traditional wooden huts. It is accessible via a galvanized steel staircase with an intermediate landing.
This is a one-bedroom holiday home designed to “create a unique sensory experience for visitors.” Pre-aged western pine planks make up the facade so it blends with the surrounding tree trunks. The interior walls and ceilings use white-pine panels that complement polished concrete floors.
Meanwhile, strategically placed glazing offer expansive views of the forest scenery. La Cime also has terraces where guests can commune with nature. There’s a covered terrace and an open terrace decked with a hot tub and sun loungers. Slatted wooden screens that look out to the trees connect these terraces to the domestic places inside La Cime.
According to Naturehumaine, the beauty of the surroundings informed the cabin’s design. Situated above the bedroom, the living and kitchen areas evoke the feeling of being immersed in the tree canopies. Then the bedroom, which is in a small volume to the east equipped with a large window.
Naturehumaine says of La Cime, “The felt experience is also magnified by the floating effect provided by the location of the home, at the edge of the steep slope of the land. Despite the plurality of places and spatial experiences confined in a small space, a climate of tranquility and simplicity emerges from the whole. It is this simplicity that leaves plenty of room for relaxation and the treetops.”
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Images courtesy of Raphaël Thibodeau
