Cliff House

Tomlee Head,
Nova Scotia

Completed
2008
Cliff House
Location

Tomlee Head,
Nova Scotia

Tomlee Head, Nova Scotia
Completed
2008

This project is the first of a series of projects for a large 455 acre site on Nova Scotia's Atlantic coast. This pure box in the landscape is precariously perched off a bedrock cliff to heighten one's experience of the landscape through a sense of vertigo and a sense of floating on the sea. This strategy features the building's fifth elevation - its 'belly'.

This modest 960 square foot cabin functions as a rustic retreat. Its main level (16x44) contains a great room with a north cabinet wall, along with a service core. The open loft (16x16) is a sleeping perch. A large south-facing deck allows the interior stage to flow outward through the large windows.

This is a modest, affordable cabin that is intended as a repeatable prototype. A large, galvanized, steel superstructure anchors it to the cliff. A light steel endoskeleton forms the primary structure expressed on the interior. The envelope is a simple flat form framed box, which is clad in cedar shiplap.

Awards
2014 Azure Magazine, AZ Jury Award
2012 Governor General’s Medal for Architecture
2011 North American Wood Design Honor Award
2010 Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor’s Citation

Design Team
Brian MacKay-Lyons
Kevin Reid
Sawa Rostowska
Talbot Sweetapple
Matt Malone
Duncan Patterson

Photography
James Brittain
Kevin Reid
Greg Richardson

Structural Engineer
Campbell Comeau Engineering Limited

Geotechnical Engineering
Terrain Group

Landscape Design

Surface Design Inc.

Builder
Gordon MacLean