Architect Henri Cleinge completely remodeled this 200-year-old home located in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. The program required sheltering four generations: the great grandfather, the grandparents and the children in the old house, and the parents in the addition. This led to the idea of drawing a parallel between the multi-generational component of the program and the fact that a contemporary project would be built alongside a historical house. In this manner, the design expresses the passage of time. The strategy defined itself as a contemporary project contrasting the existing stone house, yet having an obvious relationship to the ancestral home. This idea extended to the way the spaces are defined, as two double height living rooms are at opposite ends, one in each volume, linked by a path highlighted by a bridge linking the old house to the new volume.
