Located in Huntsville, Ontario the Bridge House, designed by Mariana Leguia of LLAMA Urban Design, serves as a beautiful homage to the surrounding nature.

This beautiful home is positioned between two thick Canadian maple trees, with minimal impact on the site’s serene local greenery. Strategically built over a ravine, this residence takes on the form of a bridge as a natural response to the topography.

Personally, I find this architecture fascinating for many reasons. For instance, its form creates a delightful negative space underneath the structure, which accentuates the slope and frames the small natural valley underneath for a pleasurable walk through.

With the exterior cladding made from Ontario cedar, the Bridge House endorses a sustainable, traditional approach to sourcing only local materials. Shaped as an industrial manmade bridge known to be harsh on the environment, the home ironically serves as an eco-friendly tribute to the beautiful Northern wilderness.

As seen below, the image of a structural reference to an industrial truss bridge seems to be in stark contrast with the surrounding scenery of the Bridge House, yet it wedges itself so carefully and respectfully, as to not disturb the peace and quiet found in nature.

The interior is a spacious open-concept space, rich in natural wood, filled with sophisticated design and sleek modern forms. The predominant material of choice is, of course, beautiful Ontario wood, mostly made up of cedar and maple plywood.

Since the windows are large and cover most of the wall surface area, the light colour of the wood grain interior creates a canvas for shadows from the trees to play on, both reflecting the great outdoors, as well as inviting all of it in.

As for the space, it feels simple yet elegant, showing off that ‘more is less’. Although the forms are rather minimalists, the atmosphere created by the wood grain pattern and colour does not make the interior look empty, making for a warm and cozy environment.

Mariana Leguia’s relationship with nature through this piece is wonderfully intimate and endearing. The Bridge House makes us think about and appreciate things we normally wouldn’t, and serves as a good reminder of how far-removed we are from nature, but also of how much closer we should be!

To learn more about their impressive designs, visit LLAMA Urban Design.

Photography courtesy of Ben Rahn of A-Frame Photography.

If you enjoyed this piece, you might want to check out these other canadianrealestatehousingandhome.ca articles:

Saltspring Island Home By Saunders Architecture, BC

Molenarr Younge Cabin by MAFCOHOUSE in Haliburton, Ontario

Contemporary Cottaging In Ontario

Researched and Written by Mikhail Shchupak-Katsman, Undergraduate Environmental Design, OCAD University