Martin-Lancaster house | Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

The Martin-Lancaster house represents for us a semi-regular return to sources in the longstanding, rich, wood building traditions of Atlantic Canada – returning ‘home’. These traditions offer lessons about cultural response, and well-building which translate directly into value for our clients. This is, however, a modern reinterpretation of building principles, whose frugal, stripped down, pragmatic aesthetic is always contemporary. This year round home consists of three principle building pieces (living pavilion, service-bar, and barn) which together create a protected courtyard microclimate at the entrance. The three forms and most windows align along a more or less south axis, which is perpendicular to the coast, to promote passive solar gain. The result is a rich spatial procession from road, past barn, through court, foyer, great room, exterior terrace, and views out to sea and along the coastline. A clear programmatic hierarchy is expressed tectonically. The social nature of the living pavilion is expressed by its heavy timber structural frames, expansive curtain wall glazing, and a series of social totemic elements (hearth, stair/bench, and kitchen island). The low, smooth, shiplap clad servant bar, with its three bedrooms, is clearly subservient. The barn/guest house is the understated straight man at the road. With its invisible shingled barn doors, it is a faithful, abstract quotation of the local vernacular on the public face of the project. This is a monolithic architecture which responds to the particular cool labile maritime climate with its frequent freeze/thaw, wet/dry cycles. The eastern white cedar shingled skin treats both roof and wall as a continuous taut membrane. Zero roof overhangs avoid ice dams that would form on cold eaves, ironically avoiding leaks. The four layers of these 4” to-the-weather shingles are woven at the corners, resulting in a rain screen which moves with changes in temperature and humidity, while creating an abstract modern effect. The energy efficient strategies of this house extend to the geothermal, hydronic, in-floor heating system. The potential for structural decay and low indoor air quality as a result of condensation in typical insulated wall cavities is eliminated through a combination of outsulation and foam insulation, making roof overhangs for ventilation unnecessary. Technical innovations have brought the rich material culture traditions of our region forward; while their natural logic of climate response, and an aesthetic system honed by many hands over centuries can produce an elegant modernity that responds to place.