{"id":237729,"date":"2026-01-17T08:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/237729\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T08:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T08:09:16","slug":"inside-shane-hollanders-heated-rivalry-cottage-by-trevor-mcivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/237729\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Shane Hollander’s Heated Rivalry Cottage by Trevor McIvor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m coming to the cottage.\u201d <\/p>\n

In Heated Rivalry, these five words signal a triumphant shift in the long-burn romance between the breakout hit show\u2019s two main characters, hockey superstars Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie) and Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The steamy queer hockey romance, which debuted last November on HBO Max, is an adaptation of the book series by Rachel Reid. It follows the arc of two professional athletes as they go from on-ice rivals to lovers. The plot\u2019s central tension lies in their struggle to keep their closeted relationship under wraps while juggling their public personas in a sport rife with hypermasculinity.<\/p>\n

\"ConnorConnor Storrie and Hudson Williams are the star actors. (Sabrina Lantos\/HBO Max)<\/p>\n

At the end of the penultimate episode, Ilya calls Shane after fellow hockey player Scott Hunter comes out publicly, to confirm that he will be taking Shane up on the offer to spend a week at his cottage. The statement is loaded, a yielding to years of yearning that has sent fans into a frenzy, making the cottage itself into a cultural moment.<\/p>\n

The real-life cottage in question is Barlochan Cottage, a 2,500-square-foot lakefront abode designed by Toronto-based firm Trevor McIvor Architect<\/a>\u00a0and located on the shore of Muskoka Lake, Ontario. Designed for a private client as a \u201cfour-season cottage,\u201d the prefabricated timber structure was constructed in 2020.<\/p>\n

\"\"The real-life cottage featured in Heated Rivalry was constructed in 2020 by Trevor McIvor Architects Inc. (Adrian Ozimek)<\/p>\n

Most notably, the two-story home features striking glazing and a central granite fireplace that serves as a central axis for the building. The cottage serves as an instrumental backdrop for the show\u2019s season finale, where Ilya and Shane explore new dimensions of their relationship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very cool to see our work on such a large platform outside of the architectural community, we were not aware of how big it would become once it was released,\u201d said Alisha Bishop, a senior associate at Trevor McIvor Architect. The firm, which has designed several lakefront getaways across Ontario, helped the show\u2019s production team find the right location for Shane\u2019s private escape, connecting them with clients who were open to having their space featured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The cottage is comprised of a prefabricated timber structure. (Adrian Ozimek)<\/p>\n

Throughout the show, which spans several years, architecture and interiors are used to demarcate shifts across Ilya and Shane\u2019s careers and personalities. Shane, who Ilya accuses of having a \u201creal estate fetish,\u201d is seen trading up apartments across the years, from one sleek luxury condo to another. The cottage, however, is more personal, a retreat close to Shane\u2019s parents\u2019 house where he can have full privacy. As he tells Ilya, \u201cI didn\u2019t buy this, I had it built.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Privacy is of the utmost importance for the two leading men. And for much of the show, the two are seen nervously slipping into one another\u2019s cloistered hotel rooms for their clandestine hook-ups. With the couple\u2019s pivotal reunion at the cottage, the reveal that Shane\u2019s private getaway is essentially a glass box feels like a heavy-handed metaphor. However, this begs the question: how private is the cottage, actually?<\/p>\n

\"\"Architects used local granite to anchor the building and help it meld into the cottage\u2019s landscape. (Adrian Ozimek)<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough from an outside perspective, this seems like it would not provide privacy, once you\u2019re inside the spaces, they are very private,\u201d assured Bishop. With this project, the firm emphasized site-responsive design, shaping the cottage\u2019s footprint to \u201cframe views of the lake and surrounding forest while nestling into the natural contours of the Canadian Shield.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the sweeping glazed facade, they sought to blur the boundaries between the project and nature. To further immerse the house in its surrounding Muskoka landscape, the building\u2019s siding is clad in charred Douglas Fir Kindl, and the cottage\u2019s sweeping back staircase, which provides lakefront access, is anchored with local granite. \u201cIt is actually very difficult to spot from the lake,\u201d Bishop added.<\/p>\n

\"\"At the cottage\u2019s center is a granite fireplace that spans both stories, and serves as a central axis from which the rest of the building pivots out from. (Adrian Ozimek)<\/p>\n

For those who might be wondering how Ilya and Shane, who spend most of their time in the cottage wearing minimal-to-no clothing, can stay warm in a home that is mostly windows, Bishop explained that the secret lies beneath the feet: \u201cWe use an in-floor radiant system. It provides a great, consistent heat and is something we use in 99 percent of our projects. And the concrete floor slab helps to store this heat through the day and then slowly releases it through the night when the space cools down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"An in-floor radiant heating system combined with the concrete slab flooring keeps the cottage heated. (Adrian Ozimek)<\/p>\n

Luckily for fans, Ilya and Shane\u2019s love story is slated to continue with the announcement that Heated Rivalry will be renewed for a second season. Waiting in anticipation for these next episodes to drop, one can\u2019t help but wonder: will the duo return to the cottage once more?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m coming to the cottage.\u201d In Heated Rivalry, these five words signal a triumphant shift in the long-burn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-237729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}