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Cabin Fever: 6 Canadian Retreats We Love
October 21, 2015
These idyllic, modern cabins have us pining for a Northern retreat.
On an exposed postglacial archipelago in Canada’s windswept Georgian Bay, Katja and Adam Thom's cabin is more than eight miles from the nearest road. The house is perched in the midst of an astonishing landscape, on rocky islands that were violently scraped clean by glaciers more than ten thousand years ago.
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Originally appeared in On the Rock
A light-filled cube set against a picturesque background, this Newfoundland studio is a delightfully minimal retreat.
Originally appeared in Rock the Shack: Cabin Love
In the 1940s, the distinguished Canadian architect John Bland designed an elegant vacation house near Lake Masson in Quebec. Seven decades later, the midcentury gem was at risk for demolition due to soaring property values that made the land more valuable than the structure itself. Thankfully, architect Alain Carle stepped in. He not only restored the box home to its original glory, but also opened up its floor plan and improved its relationship to the surrounding landscape. “We’ve tried to push it beyond the limits of the original owner at the time of the construction,” he says.
Originally appeared in Midcentury Gem in Canada Saved from the Wrecking Ball
On a four-acre site on Salt Spring Island, just southwest of Vancouver, Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects crafted a cabin—modest in size yet bold in design—on the site where another cottage once stood.
Originally appeared in First-Class Cabins
Toronto architecture firm superkül applies creative green thinking and a Canadian love of timber to this affordable modern cabin in the woods. Using wood as the primary building material imbues an aesthetic warmth to the structure. It's also cost-effective, considering the abundance of Canada's natural timber resources and strong local carpentry trade.
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Originally appeared in Stealthy Modern Cabin in Ontario
On the edge of a tiny island in accessible only by boat, this buoyant summer home in Lake Huron lives the life aquatic. The houseboat is the retreat of Becca and Doug Worple, a Cincinnati couple who spends summer vacations in this region of Ontario. “This place is my heaven,” says Becca, who has made the trip every year of her life. “Every day is unpredictable and magical.” Summers are warm and clear, but the winds, she points out, can change at any time.
Photo by
Originally appeared in Floating House, Lake Huron
On an exposed postglacial archipelago in Canada’s windswept Georgian Bay, Katja and Adam Thom's cabin is more than eight miles from the nearest road. The house is perched in the midst of an astonishing landscape, on rocky islands that were violently scraped clean by glaciers more than ten thousand years ago.
Photo by Mark Giglio.
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