The work of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects embodies two interrelated primary principles: economy and place. Economy as an ethical imperative leads to creating the "maximal" experience with minimal form, material, and cost. Reinforcing this imperative is the architects' engagement of their place of practice, coastal Nova Scotia, and its climate, landform, and material culture.

The practice has evolved plan types that allow the architects to engage the land and climate of their native Nova Scotia, and is also focused on the importance of the interior spatial experience. The work of MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple is predicated on the belief that what really matters in architecture is not fashion and form but the material culture of building and the making of places. The result, evident in the nearly one hundred projects featured in the book, is both practical and poetic.