Along the Wooded Banks

Embodying a calm sense of natural belonging, Madawaska House emerges like rock through moss. Designed by Shean Architects, it reveals itself gradually, nestled within the wooded banks of the Madawaska River on the fringes of Ottawa.

The residential project did not begin with drawings. It began with walking – hours spent on site, observing how water moved, where roots surfaced, how light filtered through branches. This immersive process, central to the studio’s design approach, set the tone for the work that followed.​​ “We worked directly with our clients to help them find ‘the perfect site’ – this property stood out to us – it was a feeling,” explains project architect Brad Gawley. This instinctive response became the foundation for all that followed.

Rather than impose a singular volume, the studio conceived low-slung forms that step with the sloping terrain. Roof planes hover between levels, extending the bank into the landscape whilst preserving the canopy overhead. The footprint was carefully drawn up to protect existing root systems and natural drainage patterns – an intentional placement that reflects the practice’s belief in architecture as a guest of the landscape. “Every fenestration and its orientation has been a direct product of creating not just a window – but a carefully framed vignette of the nature outside,” shares Gawley.

This approach speaks to shizen, the Japanese concept of naturalness through harmony rather than imitation, which has long informed the work of the studio’s founder and design director, Richard Shean​​. Materials were selected for longevity and tactile richness. Stone walls ground the house and regulate temperature. Exposed concrete floors absorb shifting light, and brass fixtures gradually develop patina. The transition between exterior and interior becomes seamless.

“A big part of our work is harmonizing with the land and context, rather than imposing upon it,” shares Shean. The house unfolds as a gradual sequence, where compact passages of wood and stone open toward framed views of rock, vegetation, and glimpses of the river. Large cantilevered overhangs temper sun and snowfall, with openings designed to capture views and evoke feelings.

The experience shifts with Canada’s dramatic seasons, a quality the studio deliberately embraced from the outset. Winter light through bare branches gives way to summer’s dappled canopy. What emerges is neither rustic retreat nor modernist pavilion, but something more nuanced – a contemporary expression of regional sensibility that feels modern in language yet elemental in spirit. It is architecture as careful listening, where restraint becomes respect.