Enough House by Brian MacKay-Lyons

Enough House, the newest addition to Canadian architect Brian MacKay-Lyons' Shobac farm in Nova Scotia, Canada. An example of attractive, simple, affordable architecture that engages with nature.



Canadian architect Brian MacKay-Lyons of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited has been working for years on what we could call an architectural testing ground to explore ideas of form, materiality and building in the landscape: Shobac. 
 


A location with a history dating back thousands of years, from the days of the Mi'kmaq Indians through to the French colonists until these lands were abandoned. The architect then reclaimed it at the end of the 1980s as grazing land that over time has turned into a kind of campus around the early 19th century buildings that include an old schoolhouse and troop barn.



This forms the backdrop for Enough House, a 65-square-metre, two-level building with a small attic, in any case “enough of a house” to accommodate intern architects at MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple.



The form references the archetypal image of a house, a parallelepiped with double pitched roof. A reference underscored by the colour of the building that is fully clad in Cor-Ten steel and that reminded us of Hansel and Gretel's Gingerbread House. Brian MacKay-Lyons says that Enough House was inspired by the simple structure of the home of famous Canadian folk artist, Maud Lewis (1903-1970), a native of Nova Scotia.



The ground floor houses a living space with wood-fired stove and kitchen, and boasts a large corner window looking over the natural environment, providing both a visual and physical dialogue with the majestic landscape. Stairs take you to the bedroom and bathroom on the first floor, then a ladder leads to the attic. The interiors feature the warm shades of wood, exposed Douglas fir plywood sheathing, and stained pine floorboards.



The wood platform frame construction of Enough House is also very interesting, with the building sitting on a series of concrete supports to limit its footprint. This sustainable solution together with the metal skin gives an iconic appearance to the whole house with its essential forms, the new architectural gem of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple in Shobac.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited, http://www.mlsarchitects.ca/
Location: Shobac, Nova Scotia, Canada
Year: 2015
Images: © James Brittain