Throwback Thursday: Strutt House

Throwback Thursday: Strutt House

Among these photographs is a picture taken of Bill Lett as a young child outside the Strutt House in the Gatineau. Designed and built by Bill’s uncle, James Strutt, the house is currently being restored by the National Capital Commission. James Strutt was fascinated by building strong but lightweight structures using the bare minimum of materials. The dramatic roof — the first “wooden hyperbolic paraboloid structure” in Canada — for example, is only five centimetres thick. A 2012 study by the NCC said the Strutt House “has the parsimonious quality of an aircraft frame and the feel of a ‘Prairie Style’ home by Frank Lloyd Wright.”