How this Ottawa couple saved four mature trees while building their dream home

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In the spring of 2020, Thibaut Courouble and Bahar Pourazar bought a lot in Champlain Park with a 1950s bungalow on it.

The house was going. Their intent was to demolish it and build a new house on the 50-by-135-foot lot that backs onto Tunney’s Pasture. Four things were staying, though: the mature trees.

Many infill developments cut down mature trees, sometimes to the dismay of the neighbourhood. Ottawa has two goals that sometimes appear to be at odds with each other. One is to encourage infill housing. The other is to preserve trees for all of the benefits they provide urban neighbourhoods: beauty, privacy from neighbours and cooling shade in summer.

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Often trees are on the losing side of the equation. Courouble and Pourazar wanted a home that preserved the two bur oaks and two sugar maples that gave the lot its character.

“The project was a marathon for us, but we set our minds to it and wouldn’t take no for an answer,” said Pourazar. “If anything, the trees helped keep us going, since we knew our experience of them was going to be well worth it.”

Courouble said his eyes were opened even before the house project by Peter Wohlleben’s 2016 book The Hidden Life of Trees, which explores the social communications networks of trees.

“We only need to step outside our door to feel as if we are in the natural environment,” he said. “We found that there was even more of a benefit than we anticipated. You get a lot more than you spend.”

In the urban parts of Ottawa, any tree with a trunk more than 30 centimetres in diameter at chest height is considered a “distinctive tree.”

However, in the city’s Official Plan, when considering impacts on the urban forest and trees, approvals and permits to remove trees can’t be denied if a development conforms to the zoning by-law or for zoning by-law amendments, variances and consents that conform to the plan. In this case, the project needed no variance and no tree permit, said Courouble.

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Architect Josée Anne Pronovost of Linebox Studio worked with the couple even before they found a lot. “We said we would do everything we needed to do,” said Pronovost.

The mature trees grew around the footprint of the old house. The new house had to respect the tree root systems, and was designed around the trees with “cutouts” in the exterior walls to accommodate the tree trunks.

“The trees shaped the house and location of windows. They are part of the house. They are so present,” Pronovost.

The back portion of the house is cantilevered, resting on five metal tubes bolted into the bedrock, which is close to the surface in the neighbourhood. That reduced the “footprint” of the foundation, offering more soil for the trees and reducing excavation damage.

“It doesn’t disturb as much of the soil,” said Courouble. “We knew with a lot of excavation, we could injure the trees.”

The survival of the trees was a priority during the construction process. Giant cranes moved building materials above the bur oak in front of the house. Courouble and Pourazar made sure machinery stayed away from the tree to prevent damage to roots and branches, that construction materials didn’t contaminate the soil and that tradespeople knew the importance of the trees.

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The foundation has a certain width and depth that couldn’t be changed, but the roots could be protected, said Antonio Sanchez, the co-owner of Sanchez Homes, the project’s general contractor. A hydrovac, a machine that uses water to liquify and vacuum up soil, was used around the roots so as to not undermine the root structure.

“We just followed the roadmap and the plans. There were a few more hoops to jump through to protect the trees,” said Sanchez. “It was challenging. It was unique and different, but it was their forever home. That was important to us.”

Courouble and Pourazar used burlap to protect exposed roots and minimize erosion. Beeswax was slathered on the wounds on branches and roots to minimize risk of infection from insects and fungi.

In 2021 and 2022, invasive spongy moths descended on the bur oak in the front. The oak might have survived even without their help, but they wanted to minimize the stress on the tree.

“During construction we came multiple times a week, for many weeks, to dispose of as many spongy moth caterpillars as possible around the trunk and its lower branches,” said Courouble.

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Now that the project is finished, the trees bring joy, comfort, and a connection with the natural world that is typically only ever experienced outside of the city’s core, said Courouble.

Each of the trees adds something different to their enjoyment of the house. The front bur oak integrates the house with the street, keeping it grounded in the original character of the neighbourhood, which is named for the massive namesake “Champlain oaks” that date back to the Confederation era. That bur oak makes the house stand out less and shades it in summer, said Courouble.

The bur oak and the sugar maple in the backyard are both close to the back of the house, where they can be seen through the large windows, he said.

“They create a majestic canopy over our backyard, bring incredible views to our rooftop patio and stunning colours from spring to fall.”

The second sugar maple on the side of the house can be seen from one of the bedrooms. It also unfurls over the roof. Sitting on the rooftop patio is like being on the top of the trees, said Courouble.

Pourazar loves nature and being surrounded by trees at home makes her feel more connected to the outdoors.

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“It makes our home a happy place, and aligns with my goal of preserving the nature that surrounds us,” she said.

The icing on the cake: in November, the project won a Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ Association design award for Linebox Studio and Sanchez Homes in the custom urban home (3,800 square feet or more) category. The project was also Ottawa’s first mass-timber home, using a material called cross-laminated timber.

“This project was pretty special,” said Pronovost. “They had a lot of sustainable objectives in mind.”

The four mature trees aren’t out of the woods yet. With trees you never truly know how well they are doing. It can take years for the effects to take hold and injuries could come in ways outside of their control, said Pourazar.

“That’s the thing with trees. We don’t know if they’re wounded to this day. But we did everything we could to help them out.”

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