Architect Leo Mieles
Leo Miele’s Georgian Bay Cottage was one of five first-class cabins we featured in our November 2009 Concepts feature—which showcased works with a modern twist to the familiar log model, Swiss chalets, and Swedish friggebods. Here we present an online-exclusive interview with Mieles for a closer look at the lodge he designed.
The Georgian Bay Cottage treads lightly on the land—as the natives whose reservation this cabin is built on once did. Because the lots are leased, architect Leo Mieles explains, “the approach is: ‘Let’s not clear the hell out of the land but instead quietly embed our cottage and enjoy the landscape.’” This attitude prompts residents to distill their desires to the basic elements needed to escape from the city and relax in nature. Here, the solution is a “long-shed” construction featuring a large sliding door and pull-down bug screen, a translucent corrugated-fiberglass roof, and exposed studs and ties.
How did this project come to be?
The owners are friends and neighbors of mine so I had known them for a while. They heard through the grapevine about Christian Island, where we eventually built the cabin, and approached me to design something.
Who are the cabin owners?
It’s a couple that lives in Toronto; one is a product designer and the other is in communications. On a good day, if you time it right, they can close to Christian Island in a couple hours, then take the 20-minute ferry ride and drive another ten minutes to the cottage. It’s not too bad for a weekend trip.
What inspired the design?
There’s a typology you see in the southern United States called the dogtrot, which includes a breezeway. We took that idea and adapted it for our climate. It was important to add large sliding glass doors because the weather’s a little tougher up here. There’s also a 12-foot-wide screen that pulls down for protection from bugs in late spring and early summer.
How is the space organized?
There’s a bedroom portion, the main space, and then a little washroom, another room, and a storage area at the back. By and large it’s just a long shed with a big open space in the middle.
How did you finish the interior?
I left it in a rugged state. Some of the studs are exposed. Behind the wood-burning stove, there are a couple panels of cement board. Essentially you just have raw materials and the translucent roof held with metal tie rods. It’s a cottage; you don’t want it to be overdone.
How did the fact that the land is leased influence the design?
The north shore of Christian Island has a long stretch of white-sand beach. A number of years ago, it was divided into 100-feet-by-150-feet plots—just big enough that the cottages adjacent are far enough away that you know they’re there but they’re not too close. The leases are about 30 years long, so the approach everyone takes is not to build a cottage with all the bells and whistles but to think about what it is that they really need to get away from it all and enjoy this place. People just really want to adapt and acclimatize the best they can to the surroundings.
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Comments
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Hey Leo, Great work! I love the open space it creates, allowing nature to come right inside. What a beautiful site too. How early in Spring, and how late into the fall can they visit the cabin? I noted the wood stove - ideal for taking the chill off of cool nights... but I wonder if the space can possibly be used in winter?
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The public ferry stops running in winter so there was less incentive for the clients to make it a year round cottage. How early in spring / late in fall? I suppose it depends on one's constitution and flexibility with creature comforts.
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The cottage looks wonderful - and the beach there (it’s on a body of water called “Big Sand Bay”) is among the most lovely in Canada. Actually the public ferries do run most of the winter. The car-ferry runs until the ice is too thick for it to operate on (usually by January), then the passenger ferry which can break through the ice takes over, until the ice is too thick for it as well. Then you can cross by the island operated hovercraft, or by scoots, or by snowmobile, or for those who are not too anxious, with your own vehicle. The issue with the north shore of Christian Island is that the road to that side of the island is not ploughed during the winter, so accessibility is an issue. .
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