Jan Lake

I deviated from the 10 year student years quite a bit. While I wasn’t
at school I was either travelling or working at Jan Lake, where my
family had a seasonal fishing camp.

It was there that nearly every inspiration in life was seeded for me.
I was inspired by nature, the rugged Canadian shield, and the
backwoods cabin feel. I was inspired by my family’s vision and our
clients’ expectations for their fishing trip experience.

I took great pleasure in creating a vision together with my family for
the look and the feel of the camp. I learned how to balance creativity
with consistency and client expectations.

Here is one of our cabins. In all of our cabins we use this interior
motif: natural pine wall and ceiling coverings, classic cabinetry,
industrial tiles (for durability, easy cleaning and polished shine),
floral fabrics – an overall humble but pleasant environment.

On the outside of our cabins, we use roughcut 1×6 and paint it tan
with brown trim. We have decks on all cabins, and my father loved to
frame these around neighboring trees (as seen in the following
picture.)

Here is our main lodge. This is the first thing people see. One of my
design contributions was helping to create our logo with our
signature fish hook, and ensuring the logo was consistently displayed
in our camp and on our promotional materials and business documents.
You can see how the day lodge design is consistent with our cabins but
has a bit of its own character.

Here is the dock and our gazebo. We took great pleasure in designing and building the gazebo, it was one of the more majestic viewpoints to watch the sun set over the lake. Unfortunately, strong wind batter our docks and a few years ago we took it down.

Jan Lake Lodge

So that is my intro to Jan Lake Lodge. I will be posting more stories about JLL and how it has inspired me in using the natural and cultural environment in designing living accomodations and meeting spaces, and creating a meaningful experience for people.