Richard Kroeker

Long Cove House

West Pennant, Nova Scotia

The designer’s family house overlooks the North Atlantic in an area of frequent hurricane-force winds off the open ocean. As well as responding to the prevailing ocean wind, the low profile of the house allows for unobstructed ocean views by the neighbours just up the hill. The house is sited as close to the road as possible, to be part of the village, and leaving the site and shoreline as wild habitat. The lenticular wooden trusses are constructed with local spruce one by fours, dry bent into shape, stacked and nailed. A corrugated metal ceiling and rooftop sheathing create a stressed-skin, wing-like structure which takes the added wind, rain and snow loads of the coast as well as the green roof. The corrugated metal ceiling directs light into the house during an extended spring foggy season. The long south exposure allows the winter sun into the house, providing a high level of passive solar heating.