I would categorize Brian MacKay’s Messenger House II as an extremely minimal “dwelling”, an “essay” as the author puts it of architecture’s most simplistic manifestations.  It seems that anyone even without architectural training in plan view could read the simlistic organization of space, structure, served vs. service spaces, however this concept is less apparent in elevation.  Besides orientation, looking at the pictures, the openings don’t seem to follow a rigid set of principles as the plan does, which I would argue is quite a challange in contemporary architecture as elevations often get reduced into pattern making.  This was also discussed in our studio section as we moved into elevation and enclosure design and how the building concepts can be manifested in elevation.