Multifamily Housing
Bigwin Island Club Cabins
ARCHITECT: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
LOCATION: Baysville, Ontario
PROJECT SIZE: 50 units; 1,230-1,350 Square Feet (Each)
The Bigwin Island Club Cabins are located on an island, in the middle of a lake, in the Muskoka region in Ontario, on the Canadian shield landscape. Their forms derive from the specifics of this place, while asserting a proto-Muskoka house form—a porch house under a monolithic, shingled, sheltering roof. The datum of the cabins is the broad soffit of the roof, which sits on the bed box, the hearth and the screened porch elements below. This strategy reinforces the grazing line of the deer, who are the real architects of the island.
Like much of the work of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple, the Bigwin Island Club Cabins are both of their place, and belong to the history of architecture, and timeless, universal architectural principles. They balance the psychological need for both prospect and refuge and are part of a search for archetypal presence. –Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
Additional Credits
Design team: Brian MacKay-Lyons, Talbot Sweetapple, Jennifer Esposito, Jonny Leger, Duncan Patterson, Diana Carl, William Green, Rimon Soliman, Will Perkins, Matt Jones, Alastair Bird; general contractor: Greystone Construction; landscape architect: Baker Turner, Inc.; structural engineer: Blackwell Structural Engineers; photographer: Doublespace Photography, Inc.
