08/26/2026
When Jennifer and Corey set out to build a house in Nova Scotia—where they met two decades ago—they wanted more than a typical vacation home, and spent years searching online before finding a sloping lot in Upper Kingsburg. Not only was the location “breathtaking,” says Corey—close to protected conservation land and Lunenburg, a world UNESCO heritage site—but the land was owned by architect-developer MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple. “We had the opportunity to work with Brian and his team as the architects,” says Corey. “That made the property all that more interesting to me.” Architect Brian MacKay-Lyons and his firm had already built 50 dwellings in this peninsula village over 40 years in an ongoing experiment in community-making, and it’s the place where his own family has put down roots. For the couple, MacKay-Lyons set out to design what he calls an “upside-down house”—a 1,050-square-foot, two-bedroom home where you live upstairs and sleep on the lower floor. Since the tricky site slopes from road to creek, stilts offered an economical base. “It floats,” says the architect. “You’re up in the air like a birdhouse.” The resulting structure is everything Jennifer and Corey had been longing for. “One of the things we appreciated most about working with the architects was their ability to balance resilience with warmth and simplicity,” says Corey. “The result feels calm, understated, and connected to nature, which was always the priority for us.” Just beyond the strips of windows that run throughout the home, eagles soar past regularly, deer wander by, and a trio of beavers inhabit the pond. It’s all pretty spectacular, all year round. See more photos of the Nova Scotian home: https://www.dwell.com/article/skybox-home-on-stilts-mackay-lyons-sweetapple-architects-nova-scotia-a31acf81
