Utah's Powder Mountain, a striking natural spot in the US known for its idyllic ski resort in Eden, is now getting a new community in the shape of the MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects designed Horizon neighbourhood. Commissioned by the entrepreneurs behind the Summit Series, an established platform for invitation-only events created to foster debate amongst businesspeople, academics, creatives, philanthropists and innovators, the scheme, which consists of some 30 privately owned bespoke cabins, has just completed.
Dotting an idyllic mountain slope and following the site's natural contours, the project features structures that range in size from 90-230 sq m and come in four typologies. A communal lodge called the ‘Pioneer Cabin’ is available to all residents and provides a heart and focus for the neighbourhood. The aim is for Horizon to feel modern and forward thinking, but remain rooted in a sense of wholesomeness and context.
While the designs vary and adapt to the topography's natural rhythm, there's a strong unity in the overall design, which shines through the use of wood (the fairly spare structures feature a cedar-shingled roof and vertical shiplap cedar walls), large openings and human-centric design that is part of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple's signature style. ‘This isn’t another ski resort, but rather a planned community for entrepreneurs and creatives working together to address global challenges', say the architects.
The positioning and orientation of the cabins were very carefully planned, so as to emphasise views and avoid obstructing vistas between neighbours. At the same time, these decisions also consciously work with the region's climate to enhance sustainability in the design through passive heating and cooling.
The project displays MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple's work on community making at its very best; an approach Brian MacKay-Lyons has been known to perfect through his work on his own Shobac Farm in Nova Scotia. Horizon is the renowned Canadian architecture practice's very first completed project in the USA; meanwhile more ‘neighbourhoods' are set to follow in the area, slowly completing the Powder Mountain founders' vision for this retreat.
INFORMATION
For more information visit the MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects website
-
Would you let a robot choose your next perfume?With the rise of AI, luxury fashion houses and artisan perfumers are embracing tech-enhanced fragrances. You might even already be wearing one
-
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s new show at Kettle’s Yard will uncover the missing narratives in everyday life storiesThe artists and partners in life are collaborating on an immersive takeover of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in an exhibition that delves into a lost literary legacy
-
A holiday house on a Norwegian fjord drinks in spectacular viewsAn elegant and modest holiday home on a fjord on Norway’s western coast works with a steep site and far-reaching vistas
-
Hop on this Fire Island Pines tour, marking Pride Month and the start of the summerA Fire Island Pines tour through the work of architecture studio BOND is hosted by The American Institute of Architects New York in celebration of Pride Month; join the fun
-
A Laurel Canyon house shows off its midcentury architecture bonesWe step inside a refreshed modernist Laurel Canyon house, the family home of Annie Ritz and Daniel Rabin of And And And Studio
-
A refreshed Rockefeller Wing reopens with a bang at The Met in New YorkThe Met's Michael C Rockefeller Wing gets a refresh by Kulapat Yantrasast's WHY Architecture, bringing light, air and impact to the galleries devoted to arts from Africa, Oceania and the Ancient Americas
-
A Fire Island house for two sisters reimagines the beach home typologyCoughlin Scheel Architects’ Fire Island house is an exploration of an extended family retreat for the 21st century
-
PlayLab opens its Los Angeles base, blending workspace, library and shop in a new interiorCreative studio PlayLab opens its Los Angeles workspace and reveals plans to also open its archive to the public for the first time, revealing a dedicated space full of pop treasures
-
Los Angeles businesses regroup after the 2025 firesIn the third instalment of our Rebuilding LA series, we zoom in on Los Angeles businesses and the architecture and social fabric around them within the impacted Los Angeles neighbourhoods
-
‘Fall Guy’ director David Leitch takes us inside his breathtaking Los Angeles homeFor movie power couple David Leitch and Kelly McCormick, interior designer Vanessa Alexander crafts a home with the ultimate Hollywood ending
-
The Lighthouse draws on Bauhaus principles to create a new-era workspace campusThe Lighthouse, a Los Angeles office space by Warkentin Associates, brings together Bauhaus, brutalism and contemporary workspace design trends
