Cross Passage House

Founded in 1753, the town of Lunenburg in Nova Scotia remains an outstanding, intact example of British colonial town planning and historic architecture in North America. The Cross Passage House project is located on what was one of the last unbuilt lots within the UNESCO Lunenburg Old Town Heritage District. The design is an attempt to distil the archetypal three-quarter Cape Cod typology,investigating how and where the heritage elements (mandated in this case) and minimalist formalism might coexist. To be consistent with the style, the eaves had to be utterly simple, low, and within minimal projection; to achieve this detail, a design was developed that had its own roof ventilation, drainage, and joist-bearing details.

The plan is informed by studies of an earlier antecedent to the colonial Cape Cod style, the seventeenth-century English cross-passage house. In this typology, the living quarters for human residents and domestic animals were under the same roof, divided by a passage running front to back, with a hearth as a focal point in the open living space and a loft above. Modern open-plan design is in some ways more reminiscent of this earlier, primitive type of English dwelling than of its more recent colonial incarnations. The final design interweaves heritage references to the traditional Cape house form with contemporary approaches to light, open living, and sustainable building design.

‍