Burge House
MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
22ga perforated corrugated weathering steel
22ga corrugated weathering steel
The Burge house is a year-round home for a helicopter mechanic and his family, who now builds wind turbines on the mountaintop above. The residence is on Mount Thom, situated in the Cobequid Mountains in central Nova Scotia.
The house responds to the existing landscape, embedded into a hill above a long meadow, opening to the expanse of a creek and lake below. These three conditions - valley, brook, and mountain road - were all used to organize the plan. The house takes the elemental form of an extruded, folded corrugated Corten steel “clip,” supported by structural steel frames at 20 ft (6 m) on-centre. It rests entirely within a concrete retaining wall structure that is 144 ft (44 m) long and 20 ft (6 m) high. On the principal level, the program is organized around two "centre cores” housing the hearth and kitchen. Private spaces are located at either end of the plan and have lateral views towards the surrounding forest.
In addition to enhancing views of the landscape, part of the house was designed to complement the client's collection of vintage cars. The lower level is split into two long rooms: a vault for the car collection framed by views from the adjacent parallel lap pool.
Photography: James Brittain