Work of Mackay Lyons Sweetapple Architects Economy as Ethic

Robert McCarter, Juhani Pallasmaa, Kenneth Frampton

An inspiring monograph that captures the practical yet beautiful architecture of one of the leading architectural firms in the world

The work of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects embodies two interrelated primary principles: economy and place. Economy as an ethical imperative leads to creating the “maximal” experience with minimal form, material, and cost. Reinforcing this imperative is the architects’ engagement of their place of practice, coastal Nova Scotia, and its climate, landform, and material culture.

The practice has evolved plan types that allow the architects to engage the land and climate of their native Nova Scotia, and is also focused on the importance of the interior spatial experience. The work of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple is predicated on the belief that what really matters in architecture is not fashion and form but the material culture of building and the making of places. The result, evident in the nearly one hundred projects featured in the book, is both practical and poetic.

Reviews

The rigorously crafted modernist architecture is illustrated by photos…often shown against the spectacular coastal landscape.

— Architectural Record

Contributors

Robert McCarter

Author

Robert McCarter is an architect, author of twenty-two books, and the Ruth and Norman Moore Professor of Architecture at Washington University, St. Louis.

Juhani Pallasmaa

Introduction By

Juhani Pallasmaa is a Finnish architect and former professor of architecture and dean at the Helsinki University of Technology. He was director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture 1978-83, and head of the Institute of Industrial Arts, Helsinki.

Kenneth Frampton

Other

Kenneth Frampton was born in 1930 and trained as an architect at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. From 1972 to 2019 he served as Ware professor of architecture at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2018, he was awarded the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale. His publications include Studies in Tectonic Culture: the Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture; Labour, Work and Architecture: Collected Essays on Architecture and Design; American Masterworks: The Twentieth-Century House; Kengo Kuma: Complete Works; A Genealogy of Modern Architecture: Comparative Critical Analysis of Built Form; Modern Architecture: A Critical History; and Le Corbusier.