Atelier Carle designs SONO as a secondary residence in Wentworth Nord, Canada, shaped by northern light, a wide panorama and a close reading of the site. The house serves two friends who wanted to share one retreat while keeping enough distance for independent living. That brief guides the project from its first approach to its interior organization, creating a residence that supports gathering, retreat and gradual discovery.
RESIDENTIAL
Three long concrete walls introduce the building. Their different heights respond to the scale of the terrain and give the house a grounded presence. They form the arrival sequence and anchor the residence within the site. A narrow opening between the walls reveals the entrance, turning the first contact with the house into a controlled passage from exterior to interior.
Past this threshold, the plan organizes the living areas through a flexible layout and a timber structure. Atelier Carle uses this structure to suggest adaptability over time. The residence does not fix every use into a rigid plan. It allows the inhabitants to occupy the spaces according to changing needs, seasons and rhythms.
The volumes create a meandering sequence of rooms. Each space reveals the next slowly, building privacy through orientation, distance and partial views. The plan also breaks up sound, giving the two inhabitants and their guests a calmer acoustic experience. The house creates connection without erasing separation, allowing social life and private time to coexist within the same residence.
The kitchen opens completely toward the view and becomes the main gathering place. It serves the two friends, their guests and the natural setting around the house. Atelier Carle gives this room a central social role, using openness to connect domestic life with the surrounding terrain. The kitchen carries the project’s clearest expression of shared living, while the rest of the plan keeps a measured sense of distance.
The design avoids regional stylistic references and focuses on perception, light and bodily experience. Atelier Carle frames views through architecture, creating rooms that register changes in time, weather and indirect light. The spaces unfold in terraces that follow the natural slope of the site.
The project also depends on collaboration. Atelier Carle worked closely with builders, key trades and the clients throughout the process. The studio describes this method as a development model that a traditional fixed price contract cannot easily contain. SONO grew through trust, patience and shared decision making, with the architect working as part of a wider group rather than as the sole source of decisions.
The exposed wood structure came from a close collaboration with a local carpenter who produced and installed the woodwork. This relationship supported the development of details and their execution on site. It also allowed the project to use a significant quantity of hemlock from a site adjacent to the residence. Atelier Carle extends this wood to the north facade, where it forms columns, fascias and cladding.
Hemlock gives the house a local and ecological material base. The residence also sits on existing bedrock, avoiding blasting and major excavation.
Name: SONO
Location: Wentworth-North, Quebec, Canada
Year of completion: 2025
Area: 214 m²
Team
Alain Carle / Founding architect
Isaniel Lévesque / Associate architect
Baptiste Balbrick / M.Arch
James Jabbour / M.Arch
Starr Wang / M.Arch
Sarah Mei Mousseau / Architectural technologist
Collaborators
General contractor: Metric Construction Inc.
Structural engineer: VCMa Engineering consultants
Geotechnical engineer: Ingénat Engineering consultants
Reclaimed wood: Taylor Lukian
Windows: Shalwin
Willwork: Xavier Collection
Photo credit: Félix Michaud
