This project was tasked to design two large houses (9,000 sq. ft. and 6,000 sq. ft.) on a challenging site bound by a busy commuter street and a busy waterfront. The large, iconic lot, a popular thoroughfare in Halifax, has a magnificent landscape of mature trees that sit adjacent to a public wharf. Another site challenge was an easement that runs diagonally through the lot. 

The urban strategy was to subdivide the lot and site the two houses to the far north side of it, condensing the built area to one side of the lot, which allowed the iconic trees to remain. Long, horizontal planes were used to nest the houses and various outbuildings into the waterfront setting. The lower levels are comprised of stone landscape walls or voids of glazing. The second floor levels, which house the more private functions of the home, were designed as long, horizontally shiplap clad boxes that float over the void spaces below. The extending roof lines further accentuate the horizontality of the homes. Both homes were designed with similar strategies to appear seamlessly as one estate on the subdivided lot. 

House One, located along the street edge, shows the narrow dimension to the street and is nestled low into the landscape to blend with the scale of other houses on the residential street. The result is a house that disguises its full scale from the street. In order to maintain privacy from the street for the residents, the design uses the stone walls strategically on the lower levels. This keeps viewing into the house to a minimum from the street while still allowing large views of the waterfront from the living, dining, and kitchen areas. 

Boxes that cantilever over the glazing serve three purposes: shading the large glazed areas; creating a blur between inside and out on the lower floors; and allowing for needed additional space on the upper floors. A long slim pool and pool house are slotted in a small slip of space between the easement and the waterfront setback requirements. On the far end of the other side of the property, a covered fire pit area provides a node in the park area, book-ending the site. 

The homes use energy-efficient strategies including ICF walls behind the lower level stone-clad walls – most of which are north-facing – and a double wall system on the upper floor that has been insulated to R50. For efficient heating, in-floor heating is placed in slabs on all floors and ducted heat pumps have been installed for extra summer cooling. The entire site was built-up before the start of any construction to ensure that the lowest “basement” floor of House Two was above the High Water Mark. A well was drilled for the irrigation system to avoid the use of public water for the maintenance of the extensive gardens.