Located in the small community of Upper Kingsburg, Nova Scotia, this modest house by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects epitomises the firm’s sensitive approach to residential design. With two bedrooms and measuring 1,050 square feet, Skybox is no sprawling modernist McMansion, nor is it an ersatz pastiche of the local vernacular.
The entrance bridge
Discover the joys of this modest house in Nova Scotia
Instead, Brian MacKay-Lyons, Talbot Sweetapple and their team have chosen to go back to basics, looking at the qualities and characteristics of local fishing shacks and translating these into a residential archetype that is attuned to the local environment. The house sits on a slender steel structure that elevates it above the sloping site, with an entrance deck set back from the road.
The staircase leads up from the bedrooms to the living area
On the entrance level there are two bedrooms and a bathroom, with a straight stair that leads up to the kitchen, dining and living space on the upper floor. Here the volume has been expanded up into the wooden eaves, creating a typical ‘great room’ with an uninterrupted run of windows looking north. Another strip of fenestration serves as a backdrop to the linear kitchen island, with south-easterly views across nearby Romkey Pond with Hartling Bay beyond.
The great room at the top of the house
Roof joists are exposed, as are the steel ties, and the warmth of the timber is paired with two hefty granite slabs, one on the west façade serving as the surround to the hearth and wood-burner, the other the backdrop to the dining banquette. The unexpected warmth and patina of these slabs add another layer of natural texture to the interior.
The kitchen counter with a view
A granite lab serves as a backdrop to the hearth
The dining banquette
Outside, Skybox is clad in functional corrugated metal, a practical, low-cost response to the region’s climate. On the bedroom level, the only windows look west across the valley, with the elevated structure creating privacy as well as views. Above these windows, the flue from the wood-burner adds a striking piece of functional high-tech detailing that enhances the verticality of this façade.
The house is raised up above the landscape
The architects describe the project as part of their ‘ongoing research on 'village-making', exploring all facets of residential design as it relates to existing landscape and surrounding communities. ‘As part of the village road, this house aspires to be a good neighbour through siting, scale, and shape,’ they write, adding that ‘sometimes the most modest dwelling, through its distillation and clarity, can become a prototype for elaboration, variation, and aggregation.’
Skybox in the landscape
MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects are a well-established and highly acclaimed Nova Scotian firm with a global reputation. Based in Halifax and Lunenburg, with fields offices in Colorado and Massachusetts, the firm has received over 170 awards since its inception in 1985. MacKay-Lyons and Sweetapple work alongside two other Principals, Melanie Hayne and Shane Andrews. The project lead on Skybox was Isaac Fresia.
Skybox in the landscape
The house epitomises the studio’s breadth of skills and constant search for innovation. As well as grand private residences, apartment buildings, educational and corporate work, Skybox offers an affordable path to striking rural design. As the architects note, ‘what begins as a straightforward, unembellished form may evolve as an adaptable framework for architectural language.’