MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects has created a proto-urban village to create community cohesion off the eastern coast of Canada.

Over the course of 38 years of practice, Brian MacKay-Lyons, operating as 'the village architect,' has built more than 40 buildings in the proto-urban village known as Shobac. Located in Nova Scotia along the Atlantic coastline, Shobac is a vessel for private and community events. Guests can stay at numerous cottages, a restored 1830 schoolhouse, a reconstructed 19th-century barn, and a studio.

The village also operates as a farm, a living school and an office research laboratory. From private stays and retreats to workshops and weddings, Shobac creates a community of dwellings that integrate practice and teaching, hospitality and land stewardship.

This project has been longlisted in the hospitality building category of Dezeen Awards 2022.

Designer: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects

Project: A Village at the End of the Earth

Read more: MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects