Matière Première Architecture
Our approach
Matière Première Architecture is a young team of architects driven by a desire to contribute to Québec’s emerging architectural landscape.
Our practice seeks to design authentic spaces rooted in the nature that surrounds them.
Recent work
All projects
A closer look
One intention, several scales.
A project begins with a careful reading of the territory. Its topography, vegetation, climate and traces of human presence guide our work. The landscape becomes a material to compose with and the first gesture of architecture.
Architecture gives inhabitable form to the qualities of a place. Through light, proportion, thresholds and materiality, it establishes a dialogue between context and use, creating spaces that are simple, sensitive and deeply rooted.
The interior is conceived as a natural extension of architecture. Materials, light, acoustics and built-in elements create a coherent atmosphere, considered at the scale of the body and everyday gestures, down to the way each space is inhabited.
At the closest scale, the object distils the project’s intention. Furniture, hardware and custom details are designed with the same care as the building, carrying the architectural idea through to what the hand touches. It is with this in mind that Matière Première has designed several sofa collections for Ghauz, as well as a range of everyday objects.
For us, these disciplines are inseparable. Landscape becomes architecture, architecture shapes the interior, and the interior extends into the object. The scale changes, but the intention remains.
In motion
Explore Sucrerie
“Conceived as a maple sugaring “machine”, this space brings family and friends together around a ritual deeply rooted in Québec’s terroir.”
Our story
The place came before the studio.
We chose the Eastern Townships as a place to live. The studio followed. Living close to a rural environment informs the way we see: how a house sits on its land, opens to the outdoors and supports everyday life.
Read our story
The story of Matière Première began with three paths meeting at a time when each was seeking a closer connection between design and construction.
Since 2006, Dominic has worked as a finishing contractor in the Montréal metropolitan area and on its South Shore. Over time, he felt a need to work differently, in surroundings closer to those where he imagined one day settling. He turned to the Eastern Townships.
From one project to the next, the same impression returned. Many of the houses he built seemed to lack architectural direction, both in their design and in their execution. The work was well done, but left little room for exploration, precision and challenge.
For their part, Etienne and Marc-Antoine were completing their master’s degrees in architecture, after nearly seven years working at different firms — part-time during their studies and full-time over the summers — including experience with a contractor. This proximity to practice had already shown them how much the quality of a project depends on continuity between the idea, the drawing and its execution.
Their ambitions came together over dinner.
Dominic was seeking more demanding projects to build. Etienne and Marc-Antoine wanted to design in closer contact with the construction site, in a setting where rigour in execution was integral to the architecture. The timing was right, and their objectives aligned naturally.
In 2016, they founded nu drom, a design-build company.
Drawing and construction moved forward in a shared dialogue. This close relationship with building gradually shaped their way of thinking about architecture: understanding how a material is assembled, how an opening is built, and how an intention carries through every stage of a project to the final detail.
Matière Première Architecture was established in 2020.
The creation of the firm distinguished the architectural practice from construction, while preserving the exchanges that had informed the first projects. Etienne and Marc-Antoine brought their perspectives as architects; Dominic, his as a contractor.
Together, they pursue a shared inquiry: designing simple, lasting places attentive to their use, where material, light and construction express a single intention.
Today, Matière Première and nu drom work under the same roof. The two entities remain distinct, but share a common project culture. The firm now undertakes projects across Québec and in Ontario.
Why Matière Première?
Because before it becomes a space, architecture takes shape through material.
Without it, a project remains an idea.
A project in mind?
Tell us about your project