Project Name: Pine Island Cottage

Location: Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada

Design Team: Bureau Tempo + Thom Fougere Studio

Total Floor Area: 3,500 ft² (325 m²)

Completion: 2024

Photography: Alex Lesage, Thom Fougere

Feature:

Project - Located on a secluded island in Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada, Pine Island Cottage features interiors by Bureau Tempo and Thom Fougere Studio that complement the architectural design by Gren Weis Architect. This holiday residence creates a spatial experience that responds to the island's rocky terrain while providing a habitat that connects deeply with the natural environment.

The cottage is designed in a T-shaped layout that cleverly follows the natural topography of the island, cascading from the bedroom wings at higher elevation down to the communal spaces that face the water. The design team walked along the island's rocky beaches with the clients, seeking ways to translate this outdoor tactile experience into the interior design.

Visitors enter through a thoughtfully designed oak door with a pebble-shaped handle, leading into a low, gently lit, oak-lined entryway. The space gradually opens as the floors terrace down, the ceiling height grows, and the material palette lightens, revealing the main living space.

At the heart of the home, the kitchen—complete with a pantry, bar and breakfast nook—is anchored by a fieldstone island evoking the feel of casual gatherings that often take place on the island's rocky shores. Extending from the kitchen is the dining area positioned under a skylight, followed by a lounge space with a built-in sofa bounded by a fieldstone hearth. The double-sided hearth is central to the cottage's circulation, warming both the interior and the screened outdoor porch.

Through careful material selection and spatial organization, the cottage honors the natural environment, evokes a sense of place, and provides residents with a living experience deeply integrated with the island landscape. As a dwelling that emphasizes sustainability and tactile experience, it showcases what the designers describe as an atmosphere that is "at once rugged and serene."

This holiday home serves as an important platform for family engagement with the natural environment, with every design detail thoughtfully considered, including custom cast wall sconces and wrought iron handrails crafted by a local blacksmith, demonstrating how to balance natural materials with modern comfort, forming its own microcosm that reflects the designers' acute understanding of material, light, and space.

Design Team - Thom Fougere Studio is a multidisciplinary design practice focused on furniture design, product development, creative direction, and architectural space, founded by Thom Fougere in 2021 in Montréal, Canada. From the very beginning, the practice was founded on a design philosophy of material dialogue, spatial sequencing, and meticulous attention to detail.

Prior to establishing his own studio, Thom Fougere served as creative director at Canadian design house EQ3 for nine years, where he crafted numerous product collections for the company and led the brand through a transformative global re-positioning. This included designing EQ3's New York flagship building, which was completed in 2019. These experiences cultivated his ability to coordinate a unified design language across different scales, influencing the studio's current practice.

Thom Fougere Studio believes good design is achieved through profound understanding of context and honest expression of materials. The studio employs what Fougere calls "minimum touch with maximum impact"—an approach exemplified in projects like Pine Island Cottage, where locally-sourced materials and thoughtful spatial sequencing create environments that are simultaneously rugged and serene. The firm's work extends beyond traditional architecture into furniture collections for brands including Mjölk and Division Twelve (Keilhauer), as well as installations like the NIX pavilion created with artist Wanda Koop.

Thom Fougere Studio represents a new generation of Canadian design talent, with work exhibited internationally at design fairs in Milan, Stockholm, New York, Montréal, and Toronto. The studio has received numerous accolades including the 2024 Toronto Design Offsite Best in Festival: Juror's Choice Award and the 2023 Good Design Award for the Spinni Stools collection. Through meticulous attention to contextual factors, material authenticity, and human experience, Thom Fougere Studio continues to produce spaces that transcend functional requirements—creating works that enhance human experience while respecting the natural environment.