Two Mont-Tremblant promoters, brothers Éric and Philippe Dalbec, have been working for the past several years promoting prestige properties. One of their recent projects, Snohaus, consists of building high-end, eco-responsible houses at an affordable price. This term that they dreamed up brings together the Swedish word for snow, and the word for house in German. The houses are Scandinavian-inspired as to both architecture and materials., and the houses have been sited with respect for the natural environment.

On a 32-acre piece of land adjacent to the Diable River and chemin du Village, Phase 1 is already completed with an 800-metre road and nine residential units. There are five more houses to come, creating what can be referred to as integrated project: every house is built on a one-acre lot and the remaining space – more than half of the total project surface area – will be used in co-ownership by the residents, including the riverside and biking and hiking/walking paths. A right-of-way has been obtained to protect the collective use of the existing mountain biking trail.

For Éric Dalbec, “the word ‘promoter’ can be synonymous with poor-quality materials and questionable construction methods, in order to create economies. Our approach is to think high-end and think in terms of the home’s lifespan, using high-quality materials. As an example, our houses have triple-glazed German windows, a metal roof, cedar cladding: they’re built on a 12-inch slab on top of insulation, and the floor is heated.”

The house is minimalist with a small footprint on the ground: the dimensions are 20 x 40 feet. The houses look similar to create consistency, but with the bends in the road, they are oriented differently to avoid monotony.

“We’ve done natural landscaping” Éric continues, “which means that the original land has not been transformed; the native species have been saved and replanted. The houses are far from the river; the siting choice allowed us to retain the wetlands and mountainsides, which proves that an eco-responsible development is possible in Mont-Tremblant.”

Besides all of which, the project created work for more than 75 professionals from our region all through last year. A Snohaus home, which has three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a powder room, sells for $865,000 plus taxes.

snohaus.ca 

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