Elle – Montreal architecture firm Atelier Barda likes to fully reimagine spaces. For this top-floor urban apartment, they crafted a lush inner courtyard to tie together the living areas, creating a quiet oasis in the midst of a bustling neighbourhood.
From the street, you’d never suspect that Résidence Alma conceals a unique interior designed by Atelier Barda. The brick and stone triplex, on the corner of a busy Montreal commercial strip in Little Italy, fits right in with its surroundings. Wrought-iron balconies, so typical of the neighbourhood, overlook the front windows of a gift shop that occupies the ground floor. It was in this building that a young entrepreneur from the fashion world, drawn as much by the vibrant neighbourhood as by the building itself, chose to make his home.
To renovate his new residence, he turned to Cécile Combelle, Antonio Di Bacco and Kevin Botchar, part of the new guard of Canadian architecture. For this project, they didn’t hesitate to overturn the classic codes of North American home design, preferring to draw on an eclectic array of influences. While the second floor was designated for short-term rentals, the third, covering some 1,700-square-feet, was remodelled from top to bottom to bring the natural world into the very heart of the house. The open plan allowed the designers to create a 200-square-foot inner courtyard—a secret garden clad in burnt wood and replete with lush vegetation and a Japanese bath—which serves as the centrepiece for the living areas. The apartment, which now has two levels thanks to the addition of a 400-square-foot mezzanine for the kitchen, dining room and two terraces, has not only received a much-needed shot of natural light, but a dose of soul as well.
