The upside down house. Chester House by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Project description by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

In Chester, an oceanside village on Nova Scotia’s South Shore, this 1,350 square foot house was realized for a woman living in Seattle, seeking to return home to Canada. The site is privately tucked away, down the slope from the main street, at the edge of the village’s boundary. While the space feels as though it sits on its own, it is within walking proximity to central Chester, making necessary amenities and nearby trails accessible.

This home is the pinnacle of minimal and modest design. A house within a house. The ground floor features two bedrooms and a staircase constructed of an origami- like folded perforated steel plate. This leads you to the upstairs, which features only one principal room. The living and dining area form a central open space, with secondary spaces creating a thickened perimeter around – a kitchen, a washroom, a covered balcony, and a bay window. A fireplace forms a central gathering place. This space invites well-being and refuge, creating a sense of safety as it is surrounded by protective thick walls inspired by Irish Tower Houses. These encompassing smaller elements help to mediate between the central room and the outside world.


Chester House by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. Photograph by James Brittain.

The upstairs living space exists for the opportunity of prospect. Surrounded by glass, the top floor allows light to reveal itself from the shadows and offer a panoramic view of the forest. Small punch windows create vignettes of intimate landscape features. The dwelling submerses occupants in a relationship with nature, sounds of the babbling brook and dappling effect of sunlight through the canopy cover. The upper storey is a weathered steel sleeve that appears to slide over its wooden base.

Minimally detailed eaves, corners, and openings both underscore and elevate the architectural simplicity. A glass entry bite forms a porch reversed. An elevated blockhouse perspective in the treetops.


Chester House by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. Photograph by James Brittain.

The downstairs wooden base creates an inversion, the upside-down house. Challenging the notions of traditional living, the bottom floor is where the bedrooms lay. Refuge and privacy are created in a sheltered and quieter environment, forming protection for the user. The wooden base creates a solid and secure place that invites calm and contemplation. With the interior sparsely furnished, the client enjoys watching the light and shadows sweep across the monochromatic surfaces.

This two-and-a-half-story house is a prototype in the practice of modest living. Culturally and economically appropriate to its setting, the site transcends into the local culture, blending into the landscape. The goal in the design process is to set out and make a home of minimal form, cost and material. In contrast with the excesses of our current consumer society, the ethic of economy overlays the form and materiality of this dwelling.