Project Credits & Specs
- Architecture: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
- Photography: James Brittain
- Location: Chester, Nova Scotia, Canada
- Area: 1 350 ft2
- Year: 2021
Project Description
In Chester, an oceanside village on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, this 1,350 square foot house was realized for a woman living in Seattle, seeking to return home to Canada. The site is privately tucked away, down the slope from the main street, at the edge of the village’s boundary. While the space feels as though it sits on its own, it is within walking proximity to central Chester, making necessary amenities and nearby trails accessible.
This home is the pinnacle of minimal and modest design—a house within a house. The ground floor features two bedrooms and a staircase constructed of an origami-like folded perforated steel plate. This leads you to the upstairs, which features only one principal room. The living and dining areas form a central open space, with secondary spaces creating a thickened perimeter around – a kitchen, a washroom, a covered balcony, and a bay window. A fireplace forms a central gathering place. This space invites well-being and refuge, creating a sense of safety as it is surrounded by protective thick walls inspired by Irish Tower Houses. These encompassing more minor elements help to mediate between the central room and the outside world.
The upstairs living space exists for the opportunity of prospect. Surrounded by glass, the top floor allows light to reveal itself from the shadows and offers a panoramic view of the forest. Small punch windows create vignettes of intimate landscape features. The dwelling submerses occupants in a relationship with nature, the sounds of the babbling brook, and the dappling effect of sunlight through the canopy cover. The upper story is a weathered steel sleeve that appears to slide over its wooden base.
Minimally detailed eaves, corners, and openings underscore and elevate the architectural simplicity. A glass entry bite forms a porch reversed. An elevated blockhouse perspective in the treetops.
The downstairs wooden base creates an inversion, the upside-down house. Challenging the notions of traditional living, the bottom floor is where the bedrooms lay. Refuge and privacy are created in a sheltered and quieter environment, forming protection for the user. The wooden base creates a solid and secure place that invites calm and contemplation. With the interior sparsely furnished, the client enjoys watching the light and shadows sweep across the monochromatic surfaces.
This two-and-a-half-story house is a prototype in the practice of modest living. Culturally and economically appropriate to its setting, the site transcends into the local culture, blending into the landscape. The goal of the design process is to set out and make a home of minimal form, cost, and material. In contrast with the excesses of our current consumer society, the ethic of economy overlays the form and materiality of this dwelling.
The project description is provided by the architects.
About the Architects
MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects is primarily based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada with field offices in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Oregon, and Massachusetts. The practice works locally and internationally on cultural, academic, and residential projects, providing full architectural, interior design, and urban design services. There are two Partners: Brian MacKay-Lyons and Talbot Sweetapple, one Managing Principal: Melanie Hayne, and one Design Associate: Shane Andrews. In over 30 years of work, the practice has built an international reputation for design excellence confirmed by over 150 awards.
