WINNER OF A 2023 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF MERIT
Among the submissions reviewed by the jury, this project was much discussed as a model for architecture’s responsibility to fragile landscapes. Although its interior space might only serve a private purpose, the drum takes up the minimum space and reduces visual disruption, making its relationship to its landscape not hidden, but minimal. For an exposed area with strong winds, its shape and its solidity are a considered, synthetic response. I appreciate how the project shows respect for the landscape and avoids privatizing it through fences and driveways—instead, you have to walk to the residence, and take a bridge up to where it is resting. — Claire Weisz, juror
On Nova Scotia’s south shore stands El Aleph, a cylindrical home sitting atop an elevated promontory jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. The setting is famously dramatic, with cobblestone beaches exposed to high winds and loud crashing waves—“a terrifying landscape,” in the words of architect Brian MacKay-Lyons.
The ridge of bedrock on which the house stands provides a strong visual connection between the main house and a guest house, sited half a kilometre apart. The guest house stands on steel stilts on an adjacent sloping site, elevated to align with the primary house. A small boathouse, sited on the banks of a nearby saltwater inlet, completes the trio of buildings on the coastal property.
MacKay-Lyons was in the Scottish Hebrides visiting a broch—a traditional roundhouse building found throughout Atlantic Scotland—when the client contacted him to enquire about designing a round house. From that conversation, the concept and form of the house emerged.
The 50-foot-diameter house, grounded on a concrete plinth and clad with copper shingles, is defined by two primary openings: the main floor’s covered terrace and a roof deck topped with a perforated screen. These off-setting “bites” out of the cylindrical form create a dynamic composition that responds to the landscape, framing views and creating sheltered microclimates.
Inside, the spaces are arranged around a wood-lined atrium defined by an exposed steel frame and top-lit by a pair of partially screened skylights. Interior openings into the atrium provide light and visual connections throughout the house. Floating stairs of perforated steel are contained within pie-shaped volumes outside of the atrium, providing discreet access to the upper floors. On the top floor, the library is contained by bookcases that wrap around the perimeter walls.
The client, a literature buff, named the drum-shaped house after a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges; the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points in the universe, so that anyone who looks upon it can see everything simultaneously. “The drum is a kind of panopticon,” says MacKay-Lyons. “You can see 360-degree views from the drum. So it’s a place where you can see the ocean wrapping around your whole world.”
CLIENTS John Kim and Paola Panero | ARCHITECT TEAM Design Lead: Brian MacKay-Lyons FRAIC (design lead), Matthew Bishop (project manager), Shane Andrews, Izak Bridgman, Andrew Falls, Tyler Reynolds, Colby Rice, Kelly Cameron, Ben Fuglevand, Isaac Fresia, Lucas McDowell | STRUCTURAL Blackwell Structural Engineers | GEOTECHNICAL Stantec | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Delmar Construction | SURVEY Design Point Engineering & Surveying Ltd. | AREA 539 m2 (gross) | BUDGET Withheld | STATUS Under construction | ANTICIPATED COMPLETION Fall 2025