This home is dramatically sited on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, a landscape defined by exposed granite, and the drama of the open ocean.  Running parallel to the rugged the shoreline, the house grips the edge fulfilling the owner’s desire to have an intimate connection to the sea. 

Its cantilevered end reaches out over ‘Sunset Rock’, its namesake and the owners most loved place on their site, for viewing the spectacular sunsets, long before the house was conceived.  The house is an extension of the rock, creating a landscape-viewing instrument, with its side opened to the Atlantic Ocean horizon, and its end a focusing aperture to the sunset.

Built as a vacation home for a professional couple who fell in love with the local people and pace of life of this small fishing community, it is a retreat from the pace of the major metropolis in which they work.  A sanctuary is a place in which to read, reflect, and write, while watching the weather.

On approach, the house appears as a long metal blade marking the transition from meadow to ocean, its monolithic form is punctuated by a generous stair leading to the framed view of the ocean horizon provided by the covered entry deck.  A series of barn doors allow for the metal skin to be completed, providing protection from storms.  The house lightly touches the ground, resting on a series of concrete fins perpendicular to the shoreline, engineered to allow rouge waves to pass under the house.  

An asymmetrical bite out of the end of the form creates a sheltered viewing deck from which to enjoy the sunset. The narrow floor plate provides excellent cross ventilation, while generous windows invite the sun in to warm the thermal mass of the concrete floors.  Body-scaled bedboxes open upward providing views to the ever-changing day and night sky through clerestory windows.  The bathing room has a long, narrow low window for viewing the ocean while seated in the bathtub.  The master suite is separated from the public spaces of the house by the covered deck allowing for privacy.

With silver metal skin the house disappears within the blanket of fog which frequents the site. The calm sculptural nature of the house, expressed both in its form and materials, are drawn from the vernacular and ethic of the local buildings used in the commercial fishery.  Many of those involved in the building of the home would be equally comfortable building a fishing boat. 

The white interior allows it to dissolve into the background as the power and immediacy of the ocean is invited in.  When seated in front of the hearth, the land between the house and the water’s edge disappears from view, and the plane of the polished grey concrete floor extends to the surface of the ocean.