The Ghost Architectural Laboratory is the research facility of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects in which selected participants design and build architectural follies dealing with issues of landscape, material culture, and community.  Over the course of two weeks the projects are designed and built by a group of diverse individuals with a wide range of experiences and skill sets and the projects reflect the impact of Nova Scotia on this peculiar but beautiful collaborative effort.

Ghost Lab 10 took place during the summer of 2008 and dealt with the concept of a minimal living condition and the circadian rhythm of the landscape. Conceived as a single home with a 1000-foot courtyard, two pavilions were developed on opposite ends of a drumlin overlooking the North Atlantic Ocean. Each pavilion addressed the time of day during which its activities occurred and were loving nicknamed the ‘day house’ and ‘night house’.

I was personally involved primarily with the ‘night house’ and the images focus on that half of the project. It embodied the night time rituals of reflection, bathing, and sleeping. During the daylight hours when the project was not in use it sat as a pure object in the landscape – during the night it drew its focus inwards and upwards towards the omnipresent night sky.

Ghost Lab 10 was documented by a journalist and photographer from Monocle Magazine which ran an article on the workshop in its September 2008 issue.