Hilltop Cottage
Hilltop Cottage
Hilltop Cottage
Hilltop Cottage
Hilltop Cottage
Hilltop Cottage
Hilltop Cottage
Hilltop Cottage
Hilltop Cottage
Hilltop Cottage
Atlantic Canada’s Celtic influence is on full display at Hilltop Cottage, a seasonal home overlooking a river valley in New Brunswick. The structure references a Scottish hillside hut for farmers called a shieling, and an Irish tower house, a tall structure once used to defend a castle. In folklore, both are steeped in windswept romance, which is repeated here: Hilltop Cottage marks the spot the homeowners got engaged. The design team at MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects grounded the home in place with western red cedar shingles in a wink to the seaside shacks of the Maritimes.
If the building looks familiar aside from its Celtic roots, that’s because the architects created an ode to the Orinda House by Charles Moore, a 1962 feat that used a pitched pyramidal roof during a time when nearly every structure was modernist and flat. From the outside, the Californian home appeared as a simple barn with sliding doors. Rolling them back exposed interior complexity: two pavilions, each with their own pyramidal roof, creating huts-within-a-home.
The Hilltop Cottage architects follow that lead, with 1.2-metre-deep walls clad in eastern white cedar shiplap, a hipped roof and two skylights that create a central inner space referencing Moore’s pavilions. Like the Orinda House, exterior barn doors slide to reveal floor-to-ceiling glass doors that fold back entirely. This version has something Moore’s home didn’t: At the north corner, the building opens completely without a single steel member, achieved through the thick walls, wood ring beam framing system and diagonal strapping in tension.
Hilltop Cottage is off-grid and oriented to avoid summer glare, and built from sustainably managed New Brunswick wood. The floors are crafted from reclaimed local barn siding, and the doors, windows and furniture are sourced from regional craftspeople, planting this Celtic-meets-California design firmly in Canada.
Team: Talbot Sweetapple, Brian MacKay-Lyons, Matthew Jones and Diana Carl (MLSA); Brackish; Stuckenschneider Decoration & Design; Terry Buggie + Glen Buggie; CBLC Consulting Engineers
