Location can play an integral part in a home's design.

Two roads diverge in a yellow wood. Which one to choose? To build his dream vacation home, Ralph Fischer opted for the less conventional route.

"This site was almost a boulder field," laughs Ralph.

Yet he and the firm of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects Ltd. didn't see the rocks as an obstacle. Quite the contrary. Architect Brian MacKay-Lyons says he envisioned them as a defining feature and
a natural stairway to the beach below.

He says combining his vision with that of the Fischer family was an integral part of the design process. Together they tramped through the woods and selected a building site on a high point overlooking the beach. Brian says he had a sense of where the house should go, and used what he jokingly refers to as his X-ray vision to orient it. His ability to "release a view" results from years of walking his farmstead property on the coast of Kingsburg, NS with a chainsaw.

"It's like wielding a big eraser," he observes.

It was definitely a discerning "eraser" that released the view from the front of the house. Today, the precipice retains enough growth to ensure privacy while at the same time offering both unobstructed slices of ocean view and waterfront vistas that are filtered through the trees.

Brian describes the provocative, modern vacation home as "a ship anchored by a rock."

Part barn, part boat, the concrete and steel structure pokes out like a fish shed from a rock-strewn promontory on seven acres near East Side Port L'Hebert, NS. The solid house seems to merge with rock and water.

As with most of Brian's designs, there's an easy transition from the space outside the house to the space inside. Outside, large boulders jostle for position, reflected in the light-flooded expanse of commercial glazing. A wrap-around, crushed stone patio is inset with sparkling granite pavers and multi-hued slate squares.

Inside, the natural concrete floor is warmed at some times by the sun, and at others by radiant in-floor heat. The boulders beyond seem almost within reach, blurring the separation between inside and outside. 

This illusion of space makes sense for a small house of 1,000 square feet. There's an open-concept living area, a loft and a master bedroom where the ceiling slopes to more than 20 feet high. Concrete "bumps" jut out on each side of the 12 foot width to do double duty-first as structural buttresses to resist the wind, and next as storage units that conceal everything from the sound system and large flat screen TV on one side of the house to the black honed granite kitchen counter, appliances, and guest bath on the other. Even the coffee maker and the telephone are housed in the bumps and out of sight. 

"If you want an essential, minimalist space, you need lots of storage," says Brian.

That's where the "bumps" come in-or more accurately-go out. Their exterior finish is natural concrete, a material selected for its maintenance-free durability and as an extension of the rocky terrain. Inside, the bumps are concealed behind locally made cherry cabinetry finished with marine varnish.

The entire house is a showcase for cherry. Applications range from the fridge facing and the slab vanity in the master bath, to the flooring in the loft and the sliding cherry screens that raise and lower easily at the end of the loft for privacy.   Additional cherry panels behind the dining table might be mistaken for modern art. They're beautifully crafted, but their original purpose is to conceal the home's air vents.

The spirit of illusion continues in the master bathroom, where a sunken concrete tub is concealed below an in-floor, removable cedar grate. Bathers can recline in the ample tub, and look through the two-sided propane fireplace to the master bedroom, where a King-sized bed rests Zen-like on a custom cherry plinth. The bedroom is painted the same bright white as the rest of the house, with two colourful, myth-inspired paintings as the only artwork. They're jaunty accompaniments to the room's primary design feature-a headboard so unconventional that it isn't even in the same room as the bed. 

The boulder, discovered when Brian was surveying the site, went on to anchor the entire building site. It also inspired the 12-foot horizontal slit window above the built-in platform bed. At night the granite surface is illuminated by small LED lights, and the house's living space continues to exceed its walls.

In keeping with the spirit of minimalism, there isn't much furniture in the Fischer house. The comfortable seating area of the living space contains two blue chairs, a two-piece set of modern nesting tables, two lamps, and a long red sofa that just might be the cleverest couch ever designed. Made in France by Ligne Roset (as is some of the other furniture in the house), it's defined by a long red bolster with hidden rollers that bisects the sofa lengthwise to create a deep seating area on one side and a bench behind. Guests sit back-to-back and side by side and some might even find a bed by sliding the bolster completely to one side. 

This highly functional sofa is the ballast for the dining table, a stainless steel slab designed by the firm. It's complemented by six sleek black leather and chrome chairs. 

"We almost always design a dining table for our houses," Brian says. "It's like the garnish for the meal."

He goes on to explain that a custom-made table is a way to further personalize the living space. It establishes the importance of eating rituals and reflects the character of both the house and its owners.

The stainless steel table was crafted locally by the same company that built the firebox for the long low fireplace in the living area and a space-saving steel staircase that lowers on wire pulleys from the loft space.

The Fischer House took eight months to build and was finished last spring. The exterior walls and roof are sturdy Galvalume-finish ribbed steel over a structural steel skeleton.

"On the windiest days, this place doesn't creak," says Ralph. "It will be here a long time. If a hurricane comes through, this is where you'll want to be."

It's clear that this is where the Calgary resident wants to be. Ralph plans to spend summers here with his wife and teenaged son. It was the family's dream to have Brian design them "a modern cabin" on the coast of Nova Scotia. With regular sightings of deer, porcupines, and seals that like to sun themselves on the rocks below, the location has not only complemented the home design-it has made all the difference.