“A culture learns over hundreds of years and thousands of people, so there’s this kind of collective intelligence in the vernacular,” says Brian MacKay-Lyons. The Halifax-based architect has made a career of designing structures so suited to their sites that they could have been built by long-ago natives—an impression belied only by their crisp, modern lines. A postage stamp–sized summer house for the Fischer family, completed in 2005 on Nova Scotia’s South Coast, encapsulates his way of working.

 

The South Coast region is a 200-mile stretch of craggy Atlantic shoreline that’s host to Canada’s mildest climate east of the Rockies. But this is still Canada, so the weather does get dicey. “Here it snows and the snow turns to rain, and then you have a wet, heavy snow on the roof,” MacKay-Lyons explains. The condition precludes building houses with eaves: With temperatures hovering around freezing, snow would melt on the roof and stay frozen atop the eaves, creating ice dams and leaks. For the Fischers, the architect was also aiming for cultural specificity, which he describes as “a modest aesthetic, which is a kind of ethic here in the Maritimes—not to put on airs, not to be pretentious.” That point of view dovetailed perfectly with the client’s need to stay affordably small. With few other limitations, conceptualization flew as MacKay-Lyons and client Ralph Fischer, fueled by coffee at a local dive, sketched out the 1,000-square-foot home.

 

In the spirit of modesty, the house is a 12-foot-wide, wood-framed box clad in an aluminum-and-steel alloy. The main structure is devoted to dwelling space; three differently sized concrete volumes on its west and east elevations contain the hearth, bathroom, and kitchen.

 

The offshoot gestures may seem capricious, but, in fact, they thoughtfully respond to place. Located on a small promontory that emerges from a spruce forest overlooking a sliver of beach, the area is littered with giant rocks left by a receding glacier. “Imagine these granite boulders rolling around in the glacier like semiprecious stones in a tumbler,” MacKay-Lyons says. “They’re like big marbles sitting on the ground. Walking among them, you feel like Alice in Wonderland.”

 

Rather than tackle the energy-hogging task of removing the boulders, MacKay-Lyons placed the house among them. And its concrete volumes serve as a kind of abstract reference to these primeval neighbors. The aesthetic effect is heightened in the bedroom, where a long, horizontal window above the bed reveals a massive boulder sitting just a foot from the house’s northern side. The closeup view of granite acts like a headboard, reminding the Fischers that they inhabit a special little enclave among the rocks.

 

These concrete elements are also devoted multitaskers—quite literally the strong shoulders that make the house work. For one, they keep it standing, by offering resistance to the ocean winds that would otherwise transport a narrow wood-frame structure from Wonderland to Oz. The concrete also provides important thermal mass that drives down fuel bills: Much like adobe, these thick walls absorb sunlight during the day and radiate warmth at night, even during the winter. (The concrete floor also collects the sun coming through south-facing windows, with a boost from a radiant heating system.) In the summer, air passing over these masses creates a kind of convection current that helps generate cross-breezes. “The house really doesn’t get hot at all,” says Fischer. “You open the windows and the air just flows through.”

 

MacKay-Lyons’s space-saving details are reminiscent of those found in old Nova Scotia farmhouses. Instead of a ladder, a delicately counterweighted stair drops down to access a loft that does double duty as a study and as sleeping quarters for the Fischers’ son, Nicholas. Built-in storage, made of locally sourced and milled cherry, also abounds. Meanwhile, the house feels more extensive than it is because each of the rooms faces a different direction, with the great room overlooking the sea, the bedroom conversing with the boulder, and the loft with east and west exposures.

 

The owners are spending summers and holidays in their new gem. “When we’re there we spend most of our time outside,” says Fischer. Like many Nova Scotians, the Fischers are considering turning the getaway into their full-time residence. Indeed, following the pack is what their house does best. Without resorting to much high technology, this rugged version of a beachfront cottage went green by emulating its predecessors.

 

Story by David Sokol. This article originally appeared in Plenty in March 2007.

 

Copyright Environ Press 2007