This modest project on Nova Scotia’s Atlantic Coast heightens the experience of ‘dwelling’ in landscape. Two pure, austere boxes were designed for this site: the land house, set back from the edge, and the cliff house, perched precariously on top of the bedrock, creating a sense of vertigo. On approaching the cabin from the land, one is presented with a calm wooded box, firmly planted on the ground, in contrast with the subsequent dramatic interior experience of flying off a cliff, experienced within. This efficient, 960 sqft(89 sq m) cabin is intended as an affordable prototype. Its main level contains a great room with a north cabinet wall and a compact service core behind. The open loft is a sleeping perch. A large, south-facing deck on the cliff edge allows the great room to flow outward. The cabin’s fenestration optimizes passive solar gains and views, both out to sea and along the coastline. This is a modest project, constructed with an extremely low budget. A galvanized steel superstructure anchors it to the cliff. A light steel endoskeleton forms the primary structure as expressed on the interior. The envelope is a simple, conventional, taut-skinned, platform-framed box. The ‘outsulation’ strategy allows the conventional wood framing system to be expressed on the interior, avoiding the need for interior finishes. Atlantic Canada has developed an elegant, economical, lightweight wood-building tradition in response to its challenging climate. Despite the tradition’s widespread use, high level of environmental sustainability, affordability and subtle, refined aesthetic, architects have been reluctant to embrace it Cliff House is an extreme expression of the ethic of economy in contrast to the excesses of our current consumer society. Listening to ‘place’ allows for an understated architecture. The problem of providing good, affordable prototype dwellings is relevant to today’s environmental crisis. Cliff House represents a search for that elusive quality, monumental modesty.