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Shobac Campus
The Shobac Campus is farm owned and maintain by award winning Canadian Architect Brian Mackay-Lyons. The campus is located in Kingsburg, Nova Scotia, Canada and is the site for many award-winning projects by the firm Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. Additionally, the Shobac Campus is home to the world-renowned Ghost Architectural Laboratory. The site itself has a rich history prior to Mackay-Lyon’s acquisition of the land in 1988. The Shobac Campus, named after the original land grant of Christian Shoubach, was originally used by the Mi’kmaq first nations as a summer camp for harvesting. Until French colonizers took claim to the land and established an Acadian fishing and farm community. By 1755 the site was then occupied by German, Swiss, and French Protestants for farming practices until the middle of the 20th Century, when the site was abandoned and only used as an inshore fishing port until 1988. In 1988, Brian Mackay-Lyons, fascinated by the idea of the 'village architect', took the opportunity to follow in the Nova Scotian tradition of building villages over pervious settlements, by acquiring the site and returning the site to its agriculture state. Today Brain Mackay-Lyons describes the campus as a utopian village of architectural ambitions rooted in listening to and preserving the site’s rich history and material culture, yet speaking in the language of modern architecture. Furthermore, the architect believes the Shobac Campus can be used as an argument for landscape stewardship and a critical-regionalist approach to architecture.

Notable Buildings on the Site:
The Shobac Campus is an open farm that includes to 13 architectural educational projects, both private and public cottages and is known internationally for its pursuit of design excellence.

School House
First built in the 1830’s the schoolhouse has found a new home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean on the Shobac campus. The schoolhouse was originally located in a community just outside Brain Mackay-Lyon’s hometown. To Brain Mackay-Lyons the restoration of the schoolhouse had a personal connection as it was bringing a piece of his childhood to his village on the shobac Campus. Mackay-Lyons restored the heavy timber structure to its former self while also taking the opportunity to winterize the building by updating the materials. Mackay-Lyon's stayed true to the material culture used for the schoolhouse with the use of clapboard for exterior cladding and a cedar shingled roof. On the interior the floors and the wainscoting are pine again staying true to its material culture. On the first level of the house there is a kitchen, dining, living room and a half bath. On the second level there is bunk room and master bedroom. In addition to updating the materials there is many furniture pieces which have been restored and are used within the house.

Enough House
The Enough House was completed in 2015 and it proposes the question how much house is enough? The 700 square foot structure looks at architecture through an lens of what Brain Mackay-Lyons calls “economy as ethic”. The goal of the project was to push the boundaries of the experience while using minimal form, materials, and cost. Furthermore, the enough house was designed as a module piece of architecture that can be flexible and adapt to any place, climate, and culture. On the Shobac Campus the structure is known as a gate house as it is the project that greets visitors as they enter into the Shobac campus. The traditional gabled roof shape of the Enough House forms a relationship to the adjacent Chebeague schoolhouse and the 1880’s octagonal troop barn, through the creation of a courtyard. The building is cladded in Cor-Ten steel while the interior has the timber framing exposed with wide plank pine flooring. On the interior the hearth and stair wall protects the occupants from the road, while the south facing window on the second level above provide a view to the Atlantic Ocean and allow for solar gains. The large corner window on the first level connects the occupants with the view over the Shobac Farm. The House is supported by concrete fins that extend past the structure into the landscape, physically connecting the structure to its immediate context. Today the Enough house is a place for architecture apprentices to stay as they work with Brian Mackay-Lyons.

Smith Residence
Smith Residence is one of the latest projects on the Shobac campus. Completed in 2019 the 2775 square foot house is designed as a summer home on the Shobac campus. The site was designed as a granite acropolis with the Smith Residence sitting on top. The house is designed in three parts sandwiched between a salt pond to the east and the ocean on the west. The two main volumes on the site divide the program of a house into two parts, with a day and night pavilions. The smaller third volume is a shared bedroom that sits adjacent to the road. All the pavilions are cladded in Cor-Ten steal with granite and glass accents, with each structure having an archetypally 6:12 gabled roof form. The day pavilion sits closest to the ocean front with the night pavilion separated by an exterior plaza and stairs that lead one from the road to the pavilions. By separating these spaces the house creates an in between space that frames the view to the ocean. To Brian Mackay-Lyons he believes; "In music the rests are as important as the notes, like the in between spaces are just as important as the architecture". The Day pavilion is anchored to the acropolis through a 5-ton granite hearth that heats the living, dinning, and kitchen spaces. The living space cantilevers over the edge of the granite plinth and provides expansive views of the ocean, through 180-degree windows that frame the horizon. The day pavilion is supported by exposed large black steal trusses with an ash veneer for interior cladding. The night pavilion is accessed on the furthest side from the day pavilion, forcing occupants to walk all the way around the structure before entering the night pavilion. The pavilion has a master bedroom at the rear side with master washroom room facing the ocean. A corner window in the bedroom looks back over the road to the salt pond, while allowing morning sun to fill the room. In contrast a corner window in the washroom looks out over the ocean while allowing the occupants to bathe in the evening sun. The structure in the night pavilion is hidden and the interior is cladded in white shiplap.

Ghost
Ghost (or Ghost International Architectural Library or Ghost laboratory) is a research laboratory for Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. Ghost began as a critique of North American architectural education in the 1990s and represented a different method of architectural teaching. Located on the Shobac campus the ghost laboratory was a design-build program that rooted itself in the idea of the hands-on master builder. The program is a 2-week event, where students design in the first week and construct the design in the second. The structures that were designed ranged from temporary structures to permanent structures. Starting in 1994 each year the program focused on a different architectural question, ending in 2011. The Ghost laboratory grew considerably since it beginnings of nine students from the Technical University of Nova Scotia, to having participants from all over the world working on projects. The Ghost project became world renowned for its tradition of promoting “the transfer of architectural knowledge through direct experience” and its focus on issues of landscape, material culture, and the creation of community. Following Ghost 13 in 2011 the Ghost Laboratory has been on hiatus until further notice.