Wallpaper* featured MacKay-Lyons in our 2002 directory. His practice had been founded with Talbot Sweetapple in the 1980s, committed from the outset to an architecture of social engagement that acknowledges the importance of our relationship with buildings, and when to compromise. Their portfolio now includes many educational and cultural building, including their own studios, as well as a hugely eclectic selection of private houses.
Mountainside joins around 40 other residential structures scattered across the slopes of Utah's Powder Mountain. For the past few years, MLSA has been involved in this expansive development, both to oversee the high-end rental cabins and a small selection of spectacular homes.
‘The clients claimed to have looked at over 4,000 websites,’ says Brian MacKay-Lyons, ‘I think they were especially taken by the Shobac Farm complex, with the new Corten-clad Smith House on the coast of Nova Scotia, where I’m sitting now.’ That complex was started back in 1988 and is still used by the firm as an architectural laboratory.
‘The clients in Utah recognised the value of community - in making a village - and the mix of old and new. That’s why they found us.’ Mountainside stands out against the modest ‘good generic’ (his own term) of the mountain cabins. Far larger in scale, it steps down the slopes. ‘This building is all about the topography of the mountain,’ MacKay-Lyons explains, ‘it really echoes the landscape.’
Clad in dark wood (‘we’re kind of agnostic when it comes to materials. It’s a game of give and take'), it provides ample accommodation, expansive views to the rugged horizon and plenty of room for the owners’ ski-in/ski-out lifestyle. MacKay-Lyons, who began his career with the great American architect Charles Moore, cites the postmodern pioneer as saying that ‘buildings are receptacles of human energy.’
RELATED STORY
‘If they receive enough,’ he adds, ‘they should give back to last a lifetime.’ In 2015, the firm won the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal, an impressive achievement for a studio that has translated its understanding of local conditions into an international reputation.
INFORMATION
-
Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024: meet the practicesIn the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2024, our latest guide to exciting, emerging practices from around the world, 20 young studios show off their projects and passion
-
St. Vincent on designing her Klaus Nomi-inspired guitar lineSt. Vincent is a Wallpaper* guest editor for 2024. Here, she unpacks her long-standing relationship with the guitar. It started with wearing one in front of a mirror. Who knows how it ends. But somewhere in the middle, there is fun and freedom and a well-tailored instrument
-
Artist Jonathan Baldock plays hide and seek with the windows of Hermès' London flagshipA series of fantastical, brightly coloured hedges, dotted with peepholes, transform Hermès' New Bond Street store, offering an interactive experience for the passerby
-
Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2024: meet the practices
In the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2024, our latest guide to exciting, emerging practices from around the world, 20 young studios show off their projects and passion
-
Arthur Erickson's Museum of Anthropology at UBC has been given a new lease of life in VancouverAfter an extensive renovation, The Museum of Anthropology is part Shinto shrine, part cathedral, part longhouse – and a temple to learning
-
A dramatic new lakeside cabin in the Canadian wilderness rises above the treesKariouk Architects' lakeside cabin ‘m.o.r.e. CLT’ explores new material approaches while making a minimal impact on a precious landscape
-
Forest Retreat is a new low-energy family house in the forests of OntarioSet beneath a vast roof, Forest Retreat is a rich mix of local materials, craftsmanship and space for an extended family to get together in the heart of nature
-
Join the West Coast Modern Week's Home Tour 2024 for modernist architecture and moreWest Coast Modern Week 2024 comes with its annual home tour courtesy of the West Vancouver Art Museum, offering an extensive, immersive showcase of Canada's modernist architecture
-
A modernist lakeside cottage in Ontario provides a perfect backdrop for family vacationsA lakeside cottage by Canadian studio Dubbeldam Architecture + Design has been shaped as a modest multigenerational retreat to accommodate the surrounding wilderness
-
Remembering Alexandros Tombazis (1939-2024), and the Metabolist architecture of this 1970s eco-pioneerBack in September 2010 (W*138), we explored the legacy and history of Greek architect Alexandros Tombazis, who this month celebrates his 80th birthday.
-
Sun-drenched Los Angeles houses: modernism to minimalismFrom modernist residences to riveting renovations and new-build contemporary homes, we tour some of the finest Los Angeles houses under the Californian sun
