It’s all downhill for this design
Eye-catching solar house appears to be sliding down a slope in Nova Scotia
At first glance, it appears the house is on its way down the hill and off for a breezy ride on the ocean.
Sliding House, situated on the corner of a 1.2-hectare lot near Lunenburg, N.S., is an architectural optical illusion.
Overlooking a pasture, the village of Upper Kingsburg, Hirtle’s Beach and finally the Atlantic Ocean, Sliding House appears to lurch forward thanks to the inventive design of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited of Nova Scotia.
The home measures 1,600 square feet and is constructed as a passive solar house: the south side, with its wall of windows, faces the horizon, while the north side is a four-footthick wall fronting the property line.
Sliding House has three levels. The main floor is the only full level; upper and lower floors are both half levels. On the main floor is the kitchen, dining and living areas, as well as a half bathroom. Above it, there’s a loft with a bedroom. The lower level is at grade and contains a second bedroom and full bathroom. Sliding House also has two porches: an entry porch on the west end at the hilltop and an outdoor porch on the east side looking towards the lake.
There’s natural cross-ventilation because the home is one room deep. The exterior is corrugated galvanized metal, or galvalume, and the interior is poplar hardwood.
Architect Brian MacKay-Lyons of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Limited, answers questions about Sliding House: What inspired you to create this design?
I owned the land previously. I cleared and mowed it. I used to go and sit under that apple tree where the entry is now and look out over the ocean. I thought this would be a great place one day to build because of the view, but it’s also a place where you’re not destroying the landscape. How is the house built to create the illusion it’s sliding?
It plays tricks with your brain. The angle of the roof and the ground line are the angle of the hill slope.
So the geometry of the hillside sets up the rectangle that makes the house. All the corrugated metal siding on the outside is parallel to the roof line so it’s like that all goes together.
The thing that contrasts all that is the ribbon window that’s horizontal and follows the ocean’s horizon. We like to say our buildings don’t sit on the ground, they’re hung like a clothesline from the ocean horizon. The horizon is everywhere in Nova Scotia. How did you create the sleekness of the family-dining room?
The ocean horizon, which wraps around three sides of the room, is that view cut — which really makes the ocean horizon seem infinite. The table and the extension of the windows wrapping right around you make it feel very long. You’re the ocean horizon when you’re dining.
I was surprised with how much light is inside the house. Part of the whole passive solar home idea is a one-room deep house.
That means every space has light from two sides, which makes the house feel very big.
It also makes you feel like you have prospect in every direction, prospect and refuge. Prospect is the big window and refuge is this protective thick north wall.
You’ve concentrated on landscape ecology for sustainability. Explain that.
(The house is) tucked up against the trees in the northwest corner so it won’t consume the farmland.
In this case, it’s about having minimal impact on the field so the field can still be a field and not be cluttered up.
The kind of suburban or ex-urban pattern is you build an executive home in the middle of the lot and in no time you’ve destroyed the whole landscape.