We Won! The Nest Takes Home the HAVAN Award for Best Custom Home $1M–$1.5M
Photography by Andrew Latreille
We're proud to share that The Nest, our off-grid retreat on Keats Island, has been named the winner of the HAVAN Award for Best Custom Home: $1 Million – Under $1.5 Million.
This one means a LOT to us. The Nest required so much of our team, and we are endlessly proud of what it became in the end.
About The Nest
Keats Island sits a short boat ride from Gibsons, BC, but feels like a world apart. There are roughly 50 full-time residents, and the island is accessible only by water taxi or passenger ferry. There is no road access to the building site, and The Nest the lot is situated on, sits at the island's highest elevation, perched above a dense evergreen canopy with beautiful views across Howe Sound. Those conditions shaped everything.
The Nest was designed by Daria Sheina Studio, and has since been featured in Dwell Magazine, Wallpaper*, Yatzer, and Dezeen. The brief called for an off-grid retreat that would feel genuinely rooted in its landscape rather than impose upon it. Two rotated geometric volumes form the building's distinctive silhouette: one cubic form pivoting 45 degrees against the other, creating a striking angular profile that reads differently from every angle and settles into the forest like it was always meant to be there.
The Logistics Challenge
If you've ever wondered what it takes to build on a remote island with no vehicle access and a site at the highest elevation on the property, The Nest is a project that will help answer some of your questions.
When we first started to dive into the logistics of this build, it quickly became apparent to Lincoln Construction Founder & CEO Erik Lincoln that prefabrication wasn't just a design preference on this project, but it was a necessity. In collaboration with BC Passive House, every component was precisely engineered, sized, and weighted for transport. Materials travelled by truck to the coast, were loaded onto barges, transported by water to Keats Island, and then helicoptered into place on site by Airspan Helicopters.
The external structure of the home was assembled in just two days. That kind of outcome doesn't happen by accident. It happens through meticulous pre-construction planning, precise sequencing, and a team that executes under pressure without compromising the standard of work. We're proud of every person who made that two-day installation possible.
The Home Itself
Inside, The Nest unfolds across three levels in a way that feels much larger than its footprint suggests. The ground floor holds the kitchen, dining area, living room, and bathroom. The middle level (contained within the angled upper volume) offers a lounge. And at the top, tucked beneath a slanted skylight, is the bedroom: a nest in the most literal sense, where waking up means looking directly into the forest canopy and the sky.
The interiors are wrapped entirely in timber boards and panels in their natural finish, walls, floors, and ceilings creating a continuous cocoon-like environment. The high-performance windows and doors were provided by Innotech Windows & Doors. Green Marmoleum flooring echoes the moss-carpeted forest outside. The freestanding bathtub sits beneath a wide window looking out over the water and mountains. The result is minimalist without feeling sparse and deeply connected to its setting in the BC woodland.
Externally, the building is clad in Western red cedar, provided by WestCoast Wood. Over time, it will weather to silvery tones and settle further into the landscape. The home runs entirely on solar power, with rainwater harvesting and filtration, and minimal foundations ensuring the delicate forest floor was left mostly undisturbed.
Recognition Beyond the Award
We're honoured by the HAVAN recognition, and also proud that The Nest has already attracted international attention. The project has been featured in Dwell Magazine, Wallpaper*, and Dezeen, some of the world's most respected design and architecture publications. That kind of recognition reflects the quality of Daria Sheina Studio's vision, and we're proud to have been the team that built it.
What This Means for Lincoln Construction
We build on the Sunshine Coast and the surrounding islands because we love this environment and we love this kind of work. Projects like The Nest remind us why.
The logistical complexity of remote builds, the environmental sensitivity required in off-grid settings, the precision that prefabricated construction demands this is the work we're built for. And being recognized by HAVAN for delivering it to this standard means more to us than we can easily put into words.
We’re more than ready to build the next out-there project, so if you have an ambitious build in mind, contact us.
