Making good urban design accessible

For Brian MacKay-Lyons, good design is not only about aesthetics, it’s also about economics. “In the information economy, people will choose to live and work where the quality of the built environment is good,” he says thoughtfully, seated at the end of a blond boardroom table in a bright meeting room lined with framed accolades. “We don’t have high enough aspirations about design here in the Maritimes.” That’s why the internationally renowned architect, urban designer, and Dalhousie University professor is doing his part to elevate standards with his firm’s elegant and understated buildings.

MacKay-Lyons, 54, has lived and worked in Japan, California, and Italy. He was born and raised in the village of Arcadia, not far from the town of Yarmouth in southwestern Nova Scotia. He returned to the province for good in 1983, founding his second architecture firm in Halifax soon after. Later he joined forces with Talbot Sweetapple, creating MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple in 2005; the pair has created projects ranging from cabins on Nova Scotia’s south shore to the Canadian Embassy in Bangladesh. 

Whether it’s a private home or something more institutional, MacKay-Lyons designs timeless buildings that are grounded in community-based principles: high density, green spaces, and front doors that open onto the streets and not into interior corridors. Such fundamentals improve quality of life. “There’s a popular misconception that good design is about making things pretty or flashy,” he says, “but good design is kind of silent.” 

Indeed, MacKay-Lyons has built his career on the Maritime aesthetic—one that is mutually simple and elegant and based in frugality. “Good design doesn’t have to mean expensive,” he says, explaining that cost is often cited as an “excuse to do things badly.” Instead, he would like to see people focused on building cities of which they can be proud. “We all spend our time travelling to places that are beautiful,” says MacKay-Lyons. “Why should we settle for less where we live?”