A time travel. Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects
04/03/2023.
[Iona] Canada
metalocus, ANTONIO CORREDERA
metalocus, ANTONIO CORREDERA
Canadian Architecture practice Abbott Brown Architects was commissioned to design the Highland Village, an immersive living museum which documents the history of Gaelic culture in Iona, a place in the Municipality of the County of Victoria, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Iona bears the homonymous name of Iona in Scotland. It is at the western end of the Barra Strait Bridge, opposite Grand Narrows, and was settled by Gaelic-speaking immigrants from the Isle of Barra in 1802.
The Visitors’ and Interpretive Centre is designed as a new cultural and physical portal to show traditional homestead life within a restored historic village in Iona, Cape Breton Island.
Iona bears the homonymous name of Iona in Scotland. It is at the western end of the Barra Strait Bridge, opposite Grand Narrows, and was settled by Gaelic-speaking immigrants from the Isle of Barra in 1802.
The Visitors’ and Interpretive Centre is designed as a new cultural and physical portal to show traditional homestead life within a restored historic village in Iona, Cape Breton Island.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Site plan. Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects.
Ground floor plan. Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects.
Section. Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects.
Section. Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects.
Diagram. Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects.
The project by Abbott Brown Architects delineates a chronological thread weaving through successive historic periods and cultural contexts, a time travel through a path that weaves in and out of a series of distinct but repeating building volumes, quasi-vernacular forms analogous to the Highland Village itself.
A path with interior and exterior ramps moving up and into the site, punctuated by material shifts in rough-sawn wood and corten steel at transitions to exhibits, a viewing platform, and passages to and from other parts of the Village.
The building envelope uses flush natural cedar cladding and steep pitched gable roofs on all four volumes. The enhanced roof thickness, apparent at the eaves, is re-interpreted in metal and evokes the thatch construction which was the predominant roofing technology among the Gaels in Scotland at the time of the Highland clearances, which triggered the first waves of migration.
The fourth volume contains the core exhibitions and the genealogical library. This is the first public-sector project in Nova Scotia designed with Passive House strategies including super-insulated walls and roofs, triple-glazed high-performance windows, and an ultra-efficient heat recovery system.
A path with interior and exterior ramps moving up and into the site, punctuated by material shifts in rough-sawn wood and corten steel at transitions to exhibits, a viewing platform, and passages to and from other parts of the Village.
The building envelope uses flush natural cedar cladding and steep pitched gable roofs on all four volumes. The enhanced roof thickness, apparent at the eaves, is re-interpreted in metal and evokes the thatch construction which was the predominant roofing technology among the Gaels in Scotland at the time of the Highland clearances, which triggered the first waves of migration.
The fourth volume contains the core exhibitions and the genealogical library. This is the first public-sector project in Nova Scotia designed with Passive House strategies including super-insulated walls and roofs, triple-glazed high-performance windows, and an ultra-efficient heat recovery system.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
Project description by Abbott Brown Architects
The Highland Village is an immersive living museum documenting the history of Gaelic culture in Nova Scotia. It presents costumed animators recreating and interpreting traditional homestead life within a restored historic village in Iona, Cape Breton Island. The Visitors’ and Interpretive Centre is designed as a new cultural and physical portal to this experience.
The intent of the Museum as a whole, and the new Centre in specific, is to draw the visitor along a chronological thread weaving through successive historic periods and cultural contexts. The design of the new Interpretive Centre delineates this time travel through a path that weaves in and out of a series of distinct but repeating building volumes. The volumes themselves form a gathering of repeated quasi-vernacular forms analogous to the Highland Village itself.
The path is composed of successive thresholds, expressed with interior and exterior ramps moving up and into the site, punctuated by material shifts in rough-sawn wood and corten steel at transitions to exhibits, a viewing platform, and passages to and from other parts of the Village. The building envelope uses flush natural cedar cladding and steep pitched gable roofs on all four volumes. The enhanced roof thickness, apparent at the eaves, is re-interpreted in metal and evokes the thatch construction which was the predominant roofing technology among the Gaels in Scotland at the time of the Highland clearances, which triggered the first waves of migration.
Highland Village Interpretive Centre by Abbott Brown Architects. Photograph by Maxime Brouillet.
The fourth, middle volume, concealed and set on its own axis, is the metaphorical heart of the complex, containing the core exhibitions and the genealogical library. An inversion of the traditional black houses of Scotland, where the wood interior is presented on the full exterior of the building, using local spruce boards, on edge and spaced.
The vegetative exterior material of the original black house typology is flipped to the interior with fibrous wood panels, which double as an acoustic treatment. A replica of an actual Hebridean black house is also located on the museum site. This is the first public-sector project in Nova Scotia designed with Passive House strategies including super-insulated walls and roofs, triple-glazed high-performance windows, and an ultra-efficient heat recovery system.
More information
Architects
Project team
Jane Abbott, Alec Brown, Katelyn Latham, Karen Mills, Kim Chayer, Asma Ali, Nick Glover.
Collaborators
Structural Engineering.- Campbell Comeau Engineering Limited.
Passive House Consultant.- Habit Studio.
Electrical Engineering.- Dillon Consulting.
Landscape Architecture.- Gordon Ratcliffe Landscape Architects.
Passive House Consultant.- Habit Studio.
Electrical Engineering.- Dillon Consulting.
Landscape Architecture.- Gordon Ratcliffe Landscape Architects.
General Contracto
Brilun Construction Ltd.
Area
728 m².
Dates
2022.
Location
4119 Highway 223. Iona, NS,B2C 1A3, Canada.
Manufacturers
Agway Metals Inc., Vetta Windows & Doors.
Photography
Jane Abbott, Alec Brown. Abbott Brown
Abbott Brown is a Canadian architecture practice that was established in 2013. The partners, Jane Abbott (March ’06 from Dalhousie University) and Alec Brown (March ’93 from Dalhousie University) worked in Vancouver, Berlin, London, Copenhagen and Toronto before each returning to Nova Scotia. Much of their work reflects this intersection between modern, aspirational design thinking and an appreciation of the local Maritime context and conditions.
Abbott Brown Architects is the recipient of two 2019 Lieutenant Governor’s Awards of Merit for Excellence in Architecture.
One award, in the large building category, is for the renovation of Dartmouth’s Zatzman Sportsplex in collaboration with Diamond Schmitt. The other, in the small building category, is for the renovation of the Alderney Gate pedway.
Jane Abbott was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and grew up in Halifax. After an undergraduate degree at McGill, she graduated from the renowned Theatre and Clothing Design program at the Danish Technical Design School in Copenhagen and went on to work with the Canadian Opera Company, The National Ballet of Canada, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
After living and working in Toronto for a number of years, Jane moved back to Halifax, and graduated from Dalhousie’s School of Architecture, receiving RAIC Honors, the AIA Henry Adams Medal and the NSAA Thesis Award. She co-founded Abbott Brown Architects in 2013. Jane teaches at Dalhousie and lectures more widely.
Alec Brown, Originally from Montreal, and Lunenburg County, Alec studied Art History at St. Andrews in Scotland, and architecture at T.U.N.S. (now Dalhousie). He worked with several prominent architectural offices in Vancouver and Europe, including McDowell+Benedetti in London and Studio Libeskind in Berlin, before returning to Nova Scotia, and starting his own firm in 2009.
Over the years, Alec has worked on projects large and small that have been recognized through design awards and widely published. In 2011 his office was selected as one of 20 leading emerging designers by the national organization 20+Change. He teaches design at the Dalhousie School of Architecture.
Abbott Brown Architects is the recipient of two 2019 Lieutenant Governor’s Awards of Merit for Excellence in Architecture.
One award, in the large building category, is for the renovation of Dartmouth’s Zatzman Sportsplex in collaboration with Diamond Schmitt. The other, in the small building category, is for the renovation of the Alderney Gate pedway.
Jane Abbott was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and grew up in Halifax. After an undergraduate degree at McGill, she graduated from the renowned Theatre and Clothing Design program at the Danish Technical Design School in Copenhagen and went on to work with the Canadian Opera Company, The National Ballet of Canada, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
After living and working in Toronto for a number of years, Jane moved back to Halifax, and graduated from Dalhousie’s School of Architecture, receiving RAIC Honors, the AIA Henry Adams Medal and the NSAA Thesis Award. She co-founded Abbott Brown Architects in 2013. Jane teaches at Dalhousie and lectures more widely.
Alec Brown, Originally from Montreal, and Lunenburg County, Alec studied Art History at St. Andrews in Scotland, and architecture at T.U.N.S. (now Dalhousie). He worked with several prominent architectural offices in Vancouver and Europe, including McDowell+Benedetti in London and Studio Libeskind in Berlin, before returning to Nova Scotia, and starting his own firm in 2009.
Over the years, Alec has worked on projects large and small that have been recognized through design awards and widely published. In 2011 his office was selected as one of 20 leading emerging designers by the national organization 20+Change. He teaches design at the Dalhousie School of Architecture.
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