卡德威尔俱乐部会所丨加拿大丨Dubbeldam Architecture + Design

Cardwell Clubhouse is an off-grid house in Muskoka District Municipality, ON, Canada, designed by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design as a social hub for an active family compound. Set beside a clearing created for the site’s photovoltaic array, the elongated building pairs a recreation room and flexible guest quarters with a gear garage, tying indoor gathering to sports courts, lake views, and the daily routines of outdoor life.

About Cardwell Clubhouse

An off-grid clubhouse brings leisure, craft, and sustainability together in a place for gathering and play.

Set at the edge of a clearing made for the photovoltaic array that powers the main cottage, Cardwell Clubhouse is an off-grid hybrid building that is part utility and part leisure hub. Designed by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design for an outdoors-oriented family who spend much of their time immersed in nature and active pursuits, it serves as the site’s central social and activity hub. The building combines a multipurpose clubhouse room, which also works as a flexible guest suite, with a garage for outdoor equipment used for racquet sports, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and other activities. An adjacent outdoor court for tennis, basketball, and pickleball, along with areas for bocce, horseshoes, and children’s games, reinforces its role as a destination for gathering and play.

Conceived as a single elongated volume, the building distills the familiar geometry of Ontario’s agricultural structures into a refined contemporary archetype. Its form is simple and direct: a long, narrow, one-story volume capped by a broad gabled roof with deep overhangs on all sides. The roof acts as both threshold and shelter, holding the building close to the ground while framing the surrounding forest and nearby sport courts. Exposed timber beams extend through the overhangs, establishing a clear rhythm and expressing the logic of the structure.

At each end, the building connects directly to the site. One side meets the driveway approach, while the other sits along the crest of a hill overlooking the lake. The program is arranged in two distinct halves. On the lake-facing side, a warm, wood-lined living area serves as a multipurpose recreation room with a kitchenette and washroom. Large sliding glass doors open directly to the sports court, creating an easy connection between indoor activity and outdoor play. Flexible furnishings allow the room to shift between casual gatherings and overnight stays. On the driveway side, a spacious garage holds the family’s outdoor and water-sport equipment, along with a dedicated battery room that supports the site’s renewable energy system. Together, the two halves support an outdoor-focused way of life and provide a separate place for guests beyond the main cottage.

Material restraint sharpens the building’s clarity. Inside, locally milled hemlock and cedar wrap the rooms, and vertical wall boards draw the eye up to the vaulted ceiling. A durable gray tile floor supports year-round use, standing up to muddy boots and wet gear. Outside, dark-stained vertical wood siding grounds the building in the forest, while the exposed timber frame and deep eaves recall regional agricultural and lodge traditions.

Sustainability sits at the center of the project. As part of a larger off-grid compound, the clubhouse is powered entirely by the nearby solar array and supported by on-site battery storage for full energy self-sufficiency. High-performance insulation, triple-glazed windows, radiant in-floor heating, and FSC-certified wood products all contribute to energy efficiency and a reduced environmental footprint. Wood sourced from a local mill for the structure and finishes further ties the building to regional material culture.

Though modest in scale, the clubhouse acts as a gateway to the site, visible on approach and setting the architectural tone for the structures beyond. In the words of principal Heather Dubbeldam, everything is pared back to essentials: structure, shelter, and craft. That restraint allows the geometry, studied through proportion and precision, to give the building a quietly forceful presence—an interpretation of the vernacular shed refined into a functional, flexible, and deeply grounded retreat.