Ghost: An Introduction

The driveway to Shobac

Messenger II, a house designed by MacKay-Lyons overlooking Shobac

A temporary tower at Shobac called Simeon built in 2004 during Ghost 6

The Barn at Shaboc built during Ghost 9

I have just returned from a week-long vacation with my wife in Nova Scotia near the town of Lunenburg about an hour from Halifax. We stayed at a cottage at Shobac, a farm on the site of historic ruins overlooking the LaHave Estuary owned by an architect named Brian MacKay-Lyons. Shobac has been location of a dozen two-week-long designing/building internships called Ghost. The mission is to "transfer architectural knowledge through experience" and have resulted in the construction of several temporary and semi-permanent buildings that use innovative and modern design that respects the history of the site. I found that the more I learned about Ghost the more I felt its philosophy could be used in garden making in New Hampshire.

These photographs at Shobac were taken on foggy morning and evoked a ghost-like spirit to me and seemed an appropriate as introduction to my experience. In the next several posts, I hope to describe the history of the site, how the buildings respect the local vernacular and how this experiment has inspired me in to be more thoughtful in making gardens.