Office: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects | ArchDaily

House at 9,000 Feet / MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Valeria Silva — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 07:00:00 +0000

Located in the Intermountain Region of the United States, the house is perched on a mountaintop at 9000 feet above sea level. The project was developed in response to its extreme site conditions and climate. A 30 percent slope across the site combined with an annual snowfall of 40 feet, resulted in a strategy of ‘floating’ the building on stilts and accessing it via a bridge.

Chester House / Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Paula Pintos — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 06:00:00 +0000

In Chester, an oceanside village on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, this 1,350 square-foot house was realized for Clare Morris, a woman living in Seattle who was seeking to relocate to Canada. Her instructions were to create a modest and functional house: “a straightforward home that feels good.”

Bigwin Island Club Cabins / MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

María Francisca González — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 07:00:00 +0000

The first three cabins of a planned community of 40 on Bigwin Island sit nestled among maple, pine and ash trees. The sweeping view they enjoy, down to the golf course and the lake beyond, is courtesy of the island’s deer: the grazing line under the trees, a swath of open air through the greenery, influenced the siting of the buildings and their emphasis on transparency between roof and floor, and earth and sky. The 40 cabins will follow three design templates, each inspired by a different type of landscape found on the island: linear on the lake, courtyard in the woods, and pinwheel on the meadow.

Smith House / MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Paula Pintos — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Smith House is a vacation home located on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, adjacent to the architect’s farm (Shobac). The home consists of three pavilions on a two-acre site spanning from a salt pond on the east to a bold oceanfront on the west. This small peninsula historically supported an inshore fishing port.

Bridge House / Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Daniel Sánchez — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 21:00:00 +0000

The house bridges between two bedrock outcrops parallel to the sea, thereby framing the approach to the sea under its "belly". One enters at either end from the two rocks. This is a floating lantern of wood-a pure man-made object calling attention to the undulating natural topography of the glaciated landscape. The primary form of the house is deconstructed to create a wide variety of indoor-outdoor conditions.

Two Hulls / Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Daniel Sánchez — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 16:00:00 +0000

This project is situated in a glaciated, coastal landscape, with a cool maritime climate. The geomorphology of the site consists of granite bedrock and boulder till, creating pristine white sand beaches, and turquoise waters. The two pavilions float above the shoreline like two ship's hulls up on cradles for the winter, forming protected outdoor places both between and under them. This is a landscape-viewing instrument; like a pair of binoculars, first looking out to sea. A third transverse 'eye' looks down the coastline, and forms a linking entry piece.

Horizon Neighborhood / MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Pilar Caballero — Wed, 15 May 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Horizon is the first pre-designed neighborhood to be built at 9,000 feet elevation on Powder Mountain, Utah. It consists of 30 cabins ranging in size from 1,000- 3,000 square feet, along with a series of strategically placed garages, and a communal lodge called the ‘Pioneer Cabin’ for the use of the homeowners. Buyers choose from four typologies, which either follow the contours like mountain goats, or are cross-grain, projecting off the mountainside like extreme skiers. The cabins are then customized for each owner. The theme and variation strategy, in combination with the dramatic topography, results in a neighborhood that has a powerful sense of both unity and variety. The first eight cabins are now complete, with subsequent units under construction.

De Vries House / Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Andreas Luco — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 17:00:00 +0000

This is a house for a retired writer returning to Canada from the United States with a fantastic book collection. The scheme creates an experience of living amongst his books.

Quebec Pool House / Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Andreas Luco — Mon, 18 Feb 2019 16:00:00 +0000

This pool house and spa is constructed into the side of a mountain at the point where it meets the St. Lawrence River valley floor. Built for a discerning client on his rural property west of Montreal, this seemingly simple structure is intricately crafted. This is a minimalist project, inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s 1929 Barcelona Pavilion, which established the grammar for this elemental modern architecture.

Enough House / MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Cristobal Rojas — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 09:00:00 +0000

Enough House is the newest addition to architect Brian MacKay-Lyons' Shobac farm in Nova Scotia. The beautiful property overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and acts as both the satellite rural studio for Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects and as an architectural testing ground. For almost 30 years, MacKay-Lyons has used the cliff-side site to explore ideas of form, materiality and building in the landscape. The campus mixes old and new, as reclaimed historic buildings sit next to modern structures unified by their palette.

Cliff House / Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Daniel Sánchez — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This project is the first of a series of projects for a large 455 acre site on Nova Scotia's Atlantic coast. This pure box in the landscape is precariously perched off a bedrock cliff to heighten one's experience of the landscape through a sense of vertigo and a sense of floating on the sea. This strategy features the building's fifth elevation - its 'belly'.

Sliding House / MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Kelly Minner — Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The house is sited on an agrarian hillside, along a 250 year old existing stone wall so as to cultivate rather than consume the field. Its sliding axis is eastward, down the hillside to the lake. In the historic village below there are three houses, corresponding to three sons of the original settlers. There are three barns, three chicken houses, etc.

Martin-Lancaster House / MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Kelly Minner — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Martin-Lancaster house is a 3000 square foot courtyard house, situated on the rugged Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. It consists of four primary components: (1) a gabled garage/guest house, (2) a gabled social pavilion, (3) a north-facing service bar, and (4) an arrival court between.

Hill House / MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Kelly Minner — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Hill House is the first of several projects we will be featuring from MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. The firm has established an international reputation for design excellence garnering 75 awards including 5 governor General's Medals and the American Institute of Architects Honor Award. They are also well known for the Ghost Architectural Laboratory, an education initiative designed to promote the transfer of architectural knowledge through direct experience.

Ghost 7 / Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Christopher Henry — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Ghost Architectural Laboratory is the research facility of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited. It is an education initiative designed to promote the transfer of architectural knowledge through direct experience – project-based learning taught in the master-builder tradition – with emphasis on issues of landscape, material culture, and community. For two weeks every summer builders, students, engineers, architects, and professors converge on MacKay’s property to partake in a design/build intership. The one featured here is Ghost 7, the first permanent Ghost project.