Architects Directory Alumnus: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple

Wallpaper* featured MacKay-Lyons in our 2002 directory. His practice had been founded with Talbot Sweetapple in the 1980s, committed from the outset to an architecture of social engagement that acknowledges the importance of our relationship with buildings, and when to compromise. Their portfolio now includes many educational and cultural building, including their own studios, as well as a hugely eclectic selection of private houses.

Mountainside joins around 40 other residential structures scattered across the slopes of Utah's Powder Mountain. For the past few years, MLSA has been involved in this expansive development, both to oversee the high-end rental cabins and a small selection of spectacular homes.

‘The clients claimed to have looked at over 4,000 websites,’ says Brian MacKay-Lyons, ‘I think they were especially taken by the Shobac Farm complex, with the new Corten-clad Smith House on the coast of Nova Scotia, where I’m sitting now.’ That complex was started back in 1988 and is still used by the firm as an architectural laboratory.

‘The clients in Utah recognised the value of community - in making a village - and the mix of old and new. That’s why they found us.’ Mountainside stands out against the modest ‘good generic’ (his own term) of the mountain cabins. Far larger in scale, it steps down the slopes. ‘This building is all about the topography of the mountain,’ MacKay-Lyons explains, ‘it really echoes the landscape.’

Clad in dark wood (‘we’re kind of agnostic when it comes to materials. It’s a game of give and take'), it provides ample accommodation, expansive views to the rugged horizon and plenty of room for the owners’ ski-in/ski-out lifestyle. MacKay-Lyons, who began his career with the great American architect Charles Moore, cites the postmodern pioneer as saying that ‘buildings are receptacles of human energy.’

‘If they receive enough,’ he adds, ‘they should give back to last a lifetime.’ In 2015, the firm won the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal, an impressive achievement for a studio that has translated its understanding of local conditions into an international reputation.

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